Primal Legend
by YungDramps
Summary: Following his faithful encounter with the other two most powerful survivors of his deceased race, Broly must learn to go beyond the confines of his lifelong home, control his power and bond with his new friends.
1. Prologue

For newcomers: Please read my other fanfic, Dragon Ball Super: Dead Zone. I did not complete it, but this story continues from there, hence the brief summary of the never-made second part.

_Following the Super Saiyan Squadron's assault on Garlic Jr.'s Castle, Cabba, Saonel and Pirina all fought Garlic Jr. inside while Sansho and Frost fended off an enraged Kale. This showdown was interrupted by the first use of the Dead Zone cannon, which sucked up all of Namek and most of it citizens into the Dead Zone. While Cabba and the Saiyans regrouped on Sadal, Saonel and Pirina fled in shame to Universe 7 where they trained with Piccolo to control their Super Namekian power. Meanwhile, Frost convinced Sansho that Garlic Jr. had totally lost his mind as their castle headed towards Sadal. They attempted to confront him, but were sealed by his magic. Eventually, Garlic Jr. reached Sadal, and while the Dead Zone cannon warmed up, the entire Sadal military charged into his base for the final battle. Cabba and Kale had trained and fought together against the tyrant, and during their engagement, Caulifla entered the fray to provide further support. For the first time thus far, the heroes had the upper hand against Garlic Jr. However, the Makyan was able to draw the power of the Dead Zone in one last attempt to win, and attained a muscular, more powerful state resembling Toppo's Hakaishin mode. Saonel and Pirina returned from their training session in the nick of time and helped their friends. Eventually, Saonel absorbed his long-time partner, using his new power to defeat Garlic Jr. once and for all by banishing him to the Dead Zone with a decisive Special Beam Cannon he had learned from Piccolo._

_After it was wished back via the Super Dragon Balls, Saonel returned to Namek, where he was promoted to tribal chieftain and put in charge of doing the chores his components would've done._

_Upon having Garlic Jr.'s magic seal wear off, Sansho and Frost stole a Super Saiyan Squadron ship and flew off into space, deciding to become brothers-in-crime._

_2 days later, the celebrations on Sadal went as planned, with Cabba, Kale, Caulifla and Saonel all participating in the festivities. Little did they know, however, that a new threat was lurking in the shadows: One with motivations far more profound than mere vengeance._

_On an unnamed world, 140.6 million miles away..._

* * *

The planet's skies were a deep shade of violet and littered with scarlet clouds just like any other day. Purple lightning crackled and descended on the ground near the stalactite-ridden cave mouth, a humanoid, reptilian figure sitting inside a rock fashioned to resemble a throne. The figure himself had a horned, serpentine head, his slender, glistening bronze eyes staring intently and counting the bursts of lightning out of sheer boredom. He wore a somewhat scratched but otherwise fairly well-maintained blue suit of armor, the body of which was dotted with faded gold, sharp-looking tribal markings. Concealed underneath the neck region of his armor was a faded, black piece of cloth resting upon his shoulders, embedded with a polygonal jewel in the center and painted, dark blue lines. This collar was not unlike the ones Gods of Destruction were known for and often depicted wearing.

The serpentine man's period of concentration was interrupted by the sound of footsteps entering his lair. He looked on with a sly smile as a very short, elderly-looking woman with frizzly white hair and light gray skin with moderately pronounced scales walked up to him. Her robed figure was supported by a wooden cane, and the shiny red jewel centered on her forehead called attention to her face, occupied by a dangerous pair of slitted eyes, a crooked nose and a fanged smile. Upon getting closer to the other man's makeshift throne, she began to speak.

"Greetings, Derma. We haven't talked in quite a while. This is because I have been intently eyeing my crystal ball these past few days after detecting some newfound disturbances. I have some wonderful news to share." After saying this, the woman reached into the folds of her dark cloak with her right hand. When it came back out, it was wielding a dark purple, glass crystal ball. Immediately, by staring at it closely enough, Derma could see visions of a familiar little green man inside of it. "First off," she continued, "that fool Garlic Jr. finally decided to go along with that little revenge plan of his. It went about as well as you would expect." she lightly cackled as a replay of Garlic Jr's muscular Destruction form being skewered by Saonel's Special Beam Cannon and limply getting sucked into the Dead Zone appeared within the magical orb. Derma couldn't help chuckle at the sight, too.

"But that's not even the best part." the witch said. "Garlic Jr. was just a nuisance; even if he ended up being too strong for us, we could've still beaten him or waited him out. For you see, while scanning neighboring Universes, I found something rather remarkable. I'm afraid looking at it through my crystal ball wouldn't do; you need to be given a closer look, my dear."

After concluding this statement, the glass of the witch's crystal ball began to slowly flap open, revealing a spherical purple spark of energy inside. The energy began to pulsate and flicker. As it did so, the scenery around Derma and his accomplice Mamba began to change. The rocky plains of their planet turned into a landscape of ice and snowy mountains, the purple, cloudy sky into a clear blue one. Derma was a bit concerned, but immediately calmed himself as he realized this was just another one of Mamba's illusions of the past. His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a deep, primal scream coupled by the sounds of fists clashing. The serpent turned around to see two warriors clashing. The former was lanky with a firey aura, orange gi and spiky scarlet hair and eyes, designating the power of the Super Saiyan God.

But this was not the one who caught Derma's attention: it was the God's opponent that caught his fancy. Unlike the composed, relatively small divine Saiyan he was facing, this one was massive, with wild golden eyes and black hair frozen upright. His most distinguishing characteristic, however, was the bright, fuzzy green pelt wrapped around his waist. Unlike his foe, his attacks were far less subtle and far more violent. Finally, the Super Saiyan God stepped back, held up a ball of red Ki in his hands and charged at the feral Saiyan. To Derma's shock, the latter grabbed the God's attack, not indicating he had been phased by it at all. He then proceeded to cling to his opponent, tossing him about and smashing him into the icy terrain they were dueling on. The divine Saiyan's agonizing screams rung through Derma's head as he tried to process what he was seeing before he was flung, his stiff, barely conscious body landing at Derma's feet. Even though it was all a vision and couldn't hurt him, the snake man couldn't help but shudder a bit. How could any being aside from an Angel reduce the legendary Super Saiyan God to wailing in such a mixture of fear and pain, only to be tossed away like a crumpled up, useless paper ball? The other Saiyan seemingly wasn't even using the normal Super Saiyan state.

Just then, a flash of recollection passed through his mind. Could it be... no, the one known as Kale already took on that demonic moniker, despite being noticeably weaker. Unless...

Unless...

With a tap of her cane, Mamba changed the scenery again, interrupting Derma's thoughts. The battlefield remained much the same, only now it was later in the day, sunset having just dawned. Once again, a different pair of warriors clashed in front of the reptilian duo. The former was thinner with upright cyan hair and a vest which Derma immediately recognized as that gained during the Metamoran fusion technique. But like the Super Saiyan God earlier, this one wasn't the one who caught Derma's attention. It was his opponent who did so: The feral Saiyan from earlier, only with even broader muscles, his chest armor gone and his hair emerald green with blank white eyes. Derma's mouth went agape at this monstrous sight. He knew deep down what this meant. It had been so long since he had thought about this sight; this sign.

Mamba saw the shocked look on her compatriot's face. With one final tap of her cane and with her crystal ball closing, they returned to their home. Derma took a while to think about what had been shown to him before speaking, not facing towards Mamba as he did so:

"What was that man's name?"

"I believe his name is Broly, my dear. As you can see, he too has that... ...gift."

"Your job, Mamba, is to get Broly to Sadal alive in any way possible." The witch did not need further orders or explanation: He already knew from the course of her many eons of living what Derma was plotting. Indeed, he had been preparing for and awaiting this day his entire life. Nodding, she began to walk away. Derma began to head back to his throne as well, muttering one final sentence as he did so:

"The 13th Prophecy shall be fulfilled."


	2. Apparitions

"_Ka..."_

_Broly lifted himself up in a daze. The world around him was twisting and turning, and while he could feel the rising temperatures of the magma geysers and smell the molten stone and dust clouds settling in the air, he had difficulty truly perceiving them, as if he was in a dream._

"_Me..."_

_The Saiyan made a great struggle to remember what had happened in the past few minutes. No matter how hard he tried, however, his memories cut off at the distressed, desperate calls of the reptilian tyrant Frieza and the sight of his father Paragus, his limp, lifeless body hanging on the ground, a small hole through his armor at the regions of his heart._

"_Ha..."_

_The distant cries and the flickering blue lights finally got Broly to snap to attention. He looked in front of him to see a new enemy: A tall, blue-haired man in a vest and white pants, charging a large sphere of energy in between his hands. Even with his lack of Ki perception training, Broly could still feel the being's immense power weighing down on his shoulders. Once again, in spite of his best efforts, his memory of the events leading up to this point was a blank._

"_Me..."_

_A split-second flash of awareness shook Broly to his core as the true horror of what was about to happen finally hit him. For a brief few moments, he shook and stumbled in place as he tried to summon a Ki blast to dispel the other one or to run away. These attempts failed, each of them being thwarted by a deeply-woven, existential panic that the innocent man had not felt in decades._

"_...HA!"_

_With a triumphant cry, the blue-haired menace fired the broad beam of energy directly at Broly. The green-haired beast could do little more than stare head-long at his ultimate fate. With every joint of his aching and every possibility exhausted, he emitted a final, infantile wail for mercy, screaming for help that would likely not come as his death sentence inched ever closer._

* * *

"Broly, wake up!"

The muscular Saiyan woke up to a start, a cold sweat dripping from his face down across his chest. The green sheets of his bed were tangled and messy, partially drooping down to the floor. At the side of the bed were his two most recent friends; the orange-skinned, middle-aged Leemo and the green-skinned, white-haired Cheelai, donning her signature purple jumpsuit.

"It sounded like you were having a pretty bad nightmare." Leemo softly said, holding onto Broly's arm. "We could hear you tossing and yelling from the other side of the hut! Thankfully, it already seems to be morning, so you shouldn't be losing too much sleep." Broly turned to look out the small bedroom's only window, and sure enough, from the outskirts of their cave, he could already see the pale, orange sky, denoting that daytime had fallen on Planet Vampa. It was his fifth day since his life had been irreversibly altered by the battle on Earth. He had spent most of the downtime since then resting from the whole ordeal while Cheelai and Leemo bonded with him and nursed him back to health. The Sensu beans Goku had gifted them had long since healed him physically, but he still needed to take a breath to recuperate from the psychological whiplash the event had induced on his primitive mind: In particular, the death of his father, Paragus.

Broly, Cheelai and Leemo all washed up before heading to the center-most room of their hut. While Cheelai prepared some fresh food and a few drinks from out of the pantry, Broly described the frighteningly vivid recollection of the final moments of his battle on Earth to Leemo. The orange alien nodded his head as Cheelai brought over breakfast. After putting down the plates, she perched her arms on the table and calmly spoke to Broly.

"Listen big guy, that stuff is in the past now. No more revenge, no more fighting against your own will. It's gonna take some time to adjust after such a sudden traumatic shift in your life, but we're here to help you out, ok?". Upon finishing her little speech, Cheelai did an OK hand symbol with her left hand. Broly responded with a little grin and a similar gesture: While the positioning of his fingers still wasn't quite correct, it was a major improvement over his previous attempt back on Frieza's ship. His nerves calmed for the moment, the Saiyan eagerly wolfed down the steaming meats and vegetables on his plate.

By the time their breakfast was over, the comrades wasted no time deliberating on what to do for the day. To their surprise, it was Broly who made the proposal.

"My old routine was pretty simple." he said. "I used to go outside with my dad to hunt for food for half of the day, and I would then spend the other half training. The food you guys brought is great, but it won't last forever."

Cheelai and Leemo thought over what he had said. They didn't have any better ideas, so they went along with it.

* * *

"So, where can we find some of those spider guys?" yelled Cheelai, her blaster holstered on her hips. Broly led the group of 3 across the stone cliffside, with Leemo in the back, holding a large gun with both hands, keeping an eye out for a potential ambush. The leader of the pack did not respond, at least not right away. However, after walking for a little longer, he held his hand up and stopped in place, his alien friends stopping as well. All of them took a moment to carefully survey their surroundings.

Before the other two could even react, Cheelai grabbed her blaster and fired several rounds into the distance, placing the weapon back into the holster as quickly as it had been unsheathed. When Broly and Leemo looked towards where the shots had been fired, they saw the corpses of 5 large spiders at the mouth of a small cave, all of them with smoking bullet holes in the center of their heads. The others did not say anything, but they could tell by the overly prideful look on the green girl's face that she was pleased with her performance.

The hours slipped by as the day wore on. Broly's crew continued to scout the rocky surface of Vampa, scavenging for more spiders and eggs. Broly eventually decided that afternoon had come and it was time to have lunch. Cheelai and Leemo did not know how he knew this; the scenery appeared no different than it did earlier that morning. However, they trusted the Saiyan's judgment. As they sat down, Leemo pulled out a capsule from one of his pockets and tossed the device on the ground. Following a puff of smoke, a barbeque grill appeared. Leemo turned on the grill while Broly haphazardly ripped off a few legs from the spiders they had hunted, placing them on top of the device. After letting them cook for a while, he carefully removed the legs and handed them to his partners.

"Maybe they'll taste better cooked." said Leemo before he bit into his leg. After only a few seconds of chewing, however, he held up his hands to cover his mouth and jumped up, his cheeks bulging. Without saying a word, he ran off. Cheelai nervously laughed before biting into her food. Unlike her friend, she was able to stomach it much better. It wasn't great, but she had eaten worse: she considered the meal on par with the typical rations she had to contend with while she was still in the Frieza Force.

About 2 minutes later, Cheelai finished her food. She turned to see if Broly was making more and if she could have some. To her surprise, however, her friend was neither cooking nor eating. He was standing up, but he wasn't doing anything, rather, he seemed to be blankly staring into the distance. Cheelai walked up behind Broly and poked him on the shoulder.

"What's wrong, Broly? Are more spiders about to attack us?"

The Saiyan did not acknowledge her at all. Cheelai continued to try to grab his attention, but even when she briefly succeeded he would go back to carefully observing the jagged hilltops and rock formations in front of him. Even when Leemo returned from relieving the contents of his upset stomach, Broly simply ignored him. Finally, after a nearly minute-long awkward silence, the two aliens began to hear Broly mumble something under his breath. While Leemo was utterly stumped as to what he had said, Cheelai perked her ears and listened in more carefully with suspicion, listening in for what she thought the man had said.

"Dad!" Broly loudly exclaimed, startling the others. He began wildly swinging his head side to side, searching for his supposed father. Cheelai wrapped her arms around his waist trying to get him to calm down, but it only seemed to make him more agitated. She was forced to let go lest she be violently swung around, but thankfully Broly seemed to relax pretty quickly upon looking around some more and not finding anything of note. Once the scene had concluded, Cheelai wasted no time questioning Broly about this sudden outburst.

"What's this about 'dad', Broly?" Cheelai asked.

"My father, Paragus. I saw him standing on top of the rocks. He was looking right at me!" after saying this, Broly pointed up to some of the rock formations. Cheelai inspected them carefully, but there was zero trace of Broly's deceased parent anywhere in sight.

"Listen Broly," Cheelai began, "your father... your father's not here anymore, my guy." Despite her soft tone, she could already see Broly gritting his teeth, his eyes very briefly flashing yellow. In a way, she could relate to Broly's mounting anger: There was nothing that infuriated her more than thinking about the cruel demogogue who once took care of the poor man. "His death wasn't your fault. Just stay calm for now. I'm sure you were just seeing things, but if you see him again, tell us right away."

"Very well," Broly responded, "but I'm still sure I saw my father."

* * *

The rest of the day was not at all exciting. While Broly didn't see any mirages of Paragus again, he did seem to have been shaken by the whole ordeal. No matter how much time passed, he seemed to be much more distracted, often stopping during walks to look around for extended periods of time. The training session they had planned was cancelled, for Broly was no longer in the state of mind to be training. By the time they returned to their cave home, the pale orange sky was already getting darker. From there, the group silently did minor errands around the house until the emerging dust storm outside denoted that it was time to eat one last meal and head off to sleep. And so they did; all except for Broly.

No matter how hard he tried, the Saiyan remained restless. Prior to Cheeli and Leemo's initial arrival, he was already used to sleeping on the ground with no walls to block out the predators of Vampa nor the violent storms that ravaged its surface at night. But even with that new luxury along with a comfortable green bed, Broly could not fall asleep despite having attempted to do so for almost an hour. His mind was still preoccupied by his earlier sighting of Paragus. He wanted to believe Cheelai's advice so badly; perhaps it was just a mirage, maybe his grief was messing with his head. But it didn't add up: He hadn't experienced mirages since he was a small child, let alone one of a person so vivid and clear.

Broly decided to try one more option. Once again going back to his youth, he remembered how after his tail was first removed, he would stare at Vampa's moon when he was having particular difficulty going to sleep. He outgrew this some time ago, but he figured that now it was worth another go. As Broly raised his body upright, however, he noticed something odd. Normally at this time of night, the moonlight would be cast directly onto the sheets of his bed. This time, however, the light was mostly gone. It wasn't that the moon wasn't there or that the light wasn't being cast: He could still see patches of brightness on the green covers. Rather, it seemed like something was blocking the moon's glow from fully shining onto his bed.

Then, Broly heard something unusual: a muffled tapping on the glass of his window. With angst and caution, he finally turned to see what was creating the noise. He was briefly startled upon seeing a humanoid figure. Despite the fact the figure was merely a silhouette against the shining moon, Broly could tell its body was facing right towards him. He would also distinguish a few basic features: In particular a mat of spiky, upright hair and the outlines of a beard, shoulder pads and a cape.

The two stared each other down for a brief few moments. It was then that Broly's gaze shifted from the indistinguishable face of the humanoid to its moving left arm. The arm itself was slowly being lifted up to the window, and as the hand became visible, it could be seen that the figure was holding some sort of rectangular object. By squnting enough, Broly could make the object out to be some kind of remote.

Broly could no longer keep his emotions under control, making no attempt to conceal his next action. With a distressed yell for his estranged parent, he jumped out of his bed, his feet furiously crashing against the floor and shaking up the entire house. He paid no heed as he recklessly ran through the rooms of the hut and through the front door, smashing into furniture as he did so.

Cheelai and Leemo were woken up by the ruckus. The green girl heard the increasingly loud cries of the simple-minded son attempted to summon his father's attention. She hastily got out of her sleeping robes and into her combat outfit with Leemo following suit. By the time they barreled out the door, however, it was too late. Broly was already at the mouth of the cave. They tried desperately to catch up with him, but the Saiyan physically surpassed them in every way. Combined with his head start, his friends could only watch as he sprinted straight into the furious, murky dust storm directly outside their refuge, chasing after the apparition as his screams became progressively more distant.

Cheelai refused to give up, however. She rushed back inside the main room of their hut and started to sift through the various shelves to see if there was anything that could help them chase after Broly. Thankfully, after only emptying half a dozen capsules, she was able to find two pairs of goggles for her and Leemo. The two strapped on the goggles and holstered their blasters, nodding to each other as they exited their home again and entered the storm to chase after their new best friend.


	3. Facing the Specter

The oppressive surge of dust and dirt continued to contaminate the midnight air of Vampa. The moon could only barely be seen through the heavy, swirling blanket of sand and grains of stone, and most rock features were featureless silhouettes when put up against the dark blue sky. But if the sounds of the furious storm were to be removed, there likely would be little other noise for miles except for the crunching and stomping of Broly's boots against the rocky surface of the planet.

The Saiyan had rapidly entered a new routine. He would walk straight forward, his arms shielding his eyes from harmful dust. Every other minute, he would briefly lift his arms away from his face to see the silhouette of Paragus walking away before Broly in turn would continue to follow. Every so often, he would cry out to get his father's attention to no avail. This repetitive cycle had already been going on to where Broly was unable to keep track of the time anymore. He had rarely been forced to endure the violent nighttime dust storms like this. Even with all his strength, he was exhausted by the painfully slow pace he was forced to go at as well as by the bombardment of the dust pellets. But in spite of this and his father's soul-crushing silence, Broly continued to brave through the weather. There was simply too much he wanted to say to Paragus since the incident on Earth to give up at this stage.

As he continued his trek, however, something began to change. While it was a slow change, the dust storm was becoming less violent: With every step he made, Broly could feel slightly less discomfort and was able to move slightly faster. In addition, when he opened his eyes, he could see his father leading more clearly each time he did so. Eventually, after a bit more walking, Broly could feel the storm fully settling. He lifted his arms and opened his eyes one more time. Paragus was still in front of him, but he was the closest and most clearly visible he had been since Broly saw him that morning. Broly could still see the storm was still active around their little circle: It was as if there was an invisible bubble protecting them from the bad weather. Nothing could seemingly interrupt them as Paragus turned to face his son, his armor and pink robe identical to the ones he had been given by Frieza, as well as being in perfect condition aside from a single small hole in the armor near the elderly Saiyan's heart.

* * *

Many miles away, Cheelai and Leemo continued to hastily sprint through the night. While they were able to go slightly faster thanks to the aid of their goggles, they had no clue where they were going, being forced to follow the rapidly disappearing footprints of Broly. As they walked, their trail became covered by more gravel, blocking out the prints they needed to guide themselves.

Cheelai suddenly stopped in place. Leemo followed suit in confusion. Before he could ask what was going on, he immediately caught on to the incoming sound of rapid scuttling. Cheelai slowly and silently drew her blaster while Leemo yanked his out of its holster. Cheelai fired the first shot, which pierced through two of an approaching large spider's legs, hampering its movement and giving the former criminal an opening to finish it off with a few more shots. Leemo was temporarily distracted by this scene before he turned back just in time to see another spider pouncing over him. He leaped out of the way with not a second to spare, landing on his back. The spider continued to scuttle towards him: Leemo took Cheelai's idea and shot at its legs in a panic. He got off 5 of its 6 appendages, but the spider was already directly in front of him and tried to crawl the remaining distance. Leemo yelled before bashing the spider's head in with the butt of his blaster.

The orange alien got up after wiping his battle suit clean of a few big drops of the spider's thick yellow blood. He didn't have much time, however. During that whole exchange, Cheelai had been continuing to hold off a swarm of spiders approaching from over the horizon. The spiders were nimble, however, using the cover of various stone pillars and formations to shield themselves from the blasts, on top of swarming their assumed prey from various sides. The two knew that even with fully charged blasters, they would eventually fall to the pack's guerilla tactics, and they soon continued to run down the trailer, haphazardly firing shots behind and around them as they did so.

* * *

The estranged father-son duo stared each other down, the dust storm stirl roaring all around them. A wave of emotions was hanging over Broly, and he was having great difficulty conveying them. As such, it ended up being Paragus who spoke first.

"First off, do not ask how I came back to life. It's a long story which I'll explain to you at a later date."

"Son… ...I'm disappointed in you."

This sentence alone stung Broly to his core. He knew what Paragus was likely referring to, but it nonetheless shook his already anxious heart.

The old man continued.

"The battle on Earth confirmed something to me: You're a loose cannon, Broly. You have zero natural control over your own power. And even with its vastness, you still couldn't kill Vegeta..."

Broly was now on the verge of tears. He felt wretched: His wild, unkempt strength had resulted in his own father's death. He had let him down, the one who had taken care of him for all those decades. In that moment, he totally forgot the stern lectures Cheelai had given him while he was still laying sick in his bed in the days immediately following the battle against Goku and Vegeta about how Paragus was an evil, abusive man, and let the grief wash over him.

"But despite what I have said, there's still a way you can be salvaged."

This statement from Paragus piqued Broly's curiosity. He walked up closer, crossing half the distance between him and the old man. He was willing to do something, anything to win back his dear father's favor.

"Shortly after I came back to life, I was informed that there is another planet with a surviving species of Saiyans."

"But how is that possible?" Broly asked.

"It's not in this Universe, my son. Rather, there is another: Universe 6, they call it. It's right next to our Universe, which is the 7th one."

Broly was now beginning to grow somewhat suspicious. Not only had his father suddenly returned, but he also somehow knew of another surviving Saiyan species? It all seemed too good to be true. Broly himself had never really known his race all that well, and the only stories he had heard of them were always steeped in his father's bitterness at how they had failed them. But even then, he had always wanted to get to know them better, and the encounter with Goku and Vegeta had only exacerbated his curiosity.

"I thought you hated most of the Saiyans after we were exiled?"

"Oh, I still do. The thing is, these Saiyans are not like the ones I grew up along with: They are stronger, more intelligent, more advanced. The only shame is that they aren't built for, nor do they have a desire for conquest or a particular lust for battle. On the other hand, their kindness will make them easy to exploit. Once we find a more efficient way to get your power under control, we'll go from there. Speaking of which…"

Paragus briefly paused to reach into the orange satchel strapped along his waist. When his hand came out, he was holding a small metal shock collar identical to the one he had been forced to wear for all those decades on Vampa. A look of discomfort immediately appeared on Broly's face. Paragus solemnly nodded.

"I know you don't like it," the demagogue said, "but it really is the only way to keep you under control for now. As I said, when we get to the new planet, we'll work on finding another way to restrain your strength. But please… ...for now, bare with me."

Broly stared at the collar still nestled in Paragus' gloved palm. He tried to think of something to say, but he knew deep down that his father was right. He couldn't even remember what had transpired in the time frame between when he had been slain to where he regained consciousness against the blue-haired man with the yellow and black vest.

Broly gently picked up the collar straight out of his father's hand. With a heavy sigh and a gloomy expression, he began to lift it up and over his head.

* * *

The pair was startled by the sound of a blaster shot being fired. Broly dropped the shock collar in surprise. He looked towards Paragus: Thankfully, he was unharmed. Instead, there was a small, but smoking hole in his satchel that came out the other end. The old man hastily reached into the pouch and pulled out a remote with a big red button, now containing a small hole through which sparking wires were jutting out. While he frantically tried to get the device to work again, a familiar voice rang out to them.

"Broly!" shouted a distressed Cheelai, still holding her blaster. While she ran in immediately to confront the two, Leemo trailed behind, looking around confusedly at the invisible bubble protecting them all from the dust.

Before she did anything else, Cheelai wrapped her arms around Broly in a hug, rocking him back and forth. "Thank goodness you're OK!" she said in a relieved whisper. Immediately afterward, in the biggest mood swing either Broly or Leemo had ever witnessed, Cheelai's soft smile converted to a wide-eyed, furious glare as she stomped towards Paragus, hopped up and gave him a firm, violent slap across his cheek.

"Listen here, shithead. I have no idea how or why you crawled out of the putrid hole you were banished to, but that's besides the point. As long as I remain a sapient organism, I will do everything I can to make sure you are not allowed to damage Broly any further with your stupid revenge schemes. I am giving you a solid 5 minutes to haul ass off this planet. And if you continue to disobey my order, or you EVER attempt to set foot back on here for ANY reason, you won't even have a life for me to make miserable."

Paragus ratcheted his head back into its previous position before he was attacked and looked down at the livid green woman. He merely gave an emotionless grunt before responding.

"What are you going to do? Kill me?" He asked in a sarcastic tone. "Go ahead. Shoot me down now. Then you can have fun dealing with my son's wrath when his power inevitably explodes in a fit of blind rage like it did on Earth."

"I'll be honest, woman. Initially, I never wanted to put that collar on Broly. As time went on, however, it became clear his strength would get me and himself killed if it wasn't contained somehow. That crude mechanism was all that I could make with the materials I had available."

"You're not fooling anyone." Cheelai replied. "You just wanted Broly to get stronger and stronger without thinking of the consequences of what you were doing. If you really cared about that stuff, you would've stopped training him the moment you noticed his unnatural strength wasn't a fluke and worked on finding some kind of humane solution first. But you didn't, and when you began to fear that your cynicism was going to come back to bite you, you strapped that thing on him and turned him into your pet."

"'A humane solution'?" Paragus asked. "And how the hell was I supposed to do that?! I couldn't even figure out a way to make Broly calm down without hurting him, let alone studying the source of his power and teaching him to control it! Broly isn't a normal Saiyan, that much is clear. What I do know is that his ability to manifest the power of a Great Ape without transforming into one is only a small piece of the puzzle. After all, such strength is good, but it shouldn't be enough to be on par with a Super Saiyan God! I saw the rest of the battle from Hell, madam. That form Broly used against the fusion… It was unlike anything I've ever seen or heard in any version of the Super Saiyan legend. There's something else brewing inside of him… Something far more sinister than just another transformation. Now tell me, how was I supposed to tame _that _with my incredibly limited resources without resorting to the means I did?"

Before the argument could escalate further, Broly jumped in between and raised his hands towards the feuding parties. Cheelai relented a bit upon seeing the man noticeably distraught.

"No more fighting!" Broly exclaimed loudly before turning to his father. "Cheelai and Leemo are my friends. Give me some time to think over what you have said, please!"

But Paragus did not listen. He grabbed his son's arm and began to drag him along. Right away, Broly noticed that his father's grip was abnormally strong: He never could've hoped to grab and drag him around like this prior to being killed.

"We don't have time for you to think!" Paragus yelled. "We're getting out of here now!"

"You leave him alone! What kind of way to treat your son is that, wrangling him around without considering his wishes?" Cheelai said to the old man who she was once again enraged at.

"STAY OUT OF THIS!" Paragus loudly exclaimed. As he said this, he quickly extended his outstretched hand towards Cheelai. The girl only had a split-second grace period before an invisible force coupled by a gust of wind smashed her in her chest. She fell on her knees, reeling from the blow and coughing violently.

Broly could no longer stand the scene. He ripped himself out of his father's grip and rushed in front of Cheelai while Leemo was helping her. "Enough is enough, father! You hurt my friend! I am not coming with you, no matter what you say. Now leave!"

Paragus merely looked back at Broly with an expression equally as blank as the one he had stared him down with earlier that day.

"No son, I don't think you understand. You ARE going to come with me."

It was then that Broly noticed his father's changing face. The pupil of his functioning eye slowly became slitted and vertical, and his sclera morphed from white to a bright amber. Thin, hazy threads of purple smoke began to emit from his shoulders as his whole body began to jitter.

"And it doesn't matter what state my remote is in: I have other ways to make you behave."

Paragus lifted his left hand up, its fingers twitching and crackling with electricity. Within a few seconds, a large Ki whip popped out from his hand and hung down to the ground, still sparking wildly.

* * *

Broly looked on with fear. He was nowhere near in the mood for fighting. He was tempted to try to reason further. But it was useless: That haunting, serpentine eye was not that of one who was able to reason.

Thanks to his son's hesitation, Paragus made the first strike, launching himself at his disobedient progeny with a wild swing of his whip. Broly lept back while Cheelai and Leemo hastily rolled out of the way and onto the sidelines. The weapon cracked as it struck the ground, kicking up large chunks of stone and dust. Through the smokescreen, Paragus was able to get in another lash of his whip, which Broly only barely dodged by craning his neck to the side. The younger warrior was caught off-guard: While his form wasn't quite up to par with Goku or Vegeta, the speed and ferocity of Paragus' attacks totally eclipsed anything his old self was able to achieve even in his prime.

Paragus attacked again, this time with a low swing with his unchanged arm. Broly was able to dodge this attack as well, and by balancing on his left arm, he was able to deliver a spinning kick into his father's hips, sending him flying and crashing into a tall rock formation to his right side. Broly rebalanced himself on his feet and flew straight at the downed Paragus while cranking back a punch. The old man woke up from a semiconscious stupor as he lay attached to the crater that had appeared on the side of the stone wall. Upon catching sight of Broly through the layers of dust that were now swinging around randomly from the force of their battle, he dodged to the side as the Saiyan's fist punched through the large rock, reducing the entire top half to an assortment of small boulders, which temporarily hung in the air before they began to fall. From his vantage point, Paragus divekicked Broly straight through some of the falling rocks and into the ground. As he fell on his back, Broly had little time to think before he was assaulted by numerous lashes from Paragus' whip. He rolled left and right, only barely dodging each strike as more cracks appeared in the ground from where the weapon struck.

But finally, he slipped. Broly made one more roll, but his momentum was temporarily disturbed by a sharp stone embedded in the dirt, causing him to wince for a moment. This was all Paragus needed to deliver a firm strike of the whip to Broly's back.

The pain was not immediate. Rather, Broly yelled progressively louder as the electricity slowly stung his back and spread across his body, coating in a blue wave of electricity as it did so. Before this wave even dissipated, however, Paragus delivered another brutal strike, this time closer to his head. His son yelled more and more and more: Every use of the shock collar he had ever experienced paled in comparison to the agony he was feeling at that moment. It did not fade either, for Paragus continued to lash at his downed son, seemingly unphased by his increasingly high-pitched, hysterical wailing.

Eventually, however, the bronze-eyed Saiyan tempered his assault. He let the whip lazily hang at his side at he looked down at his son. He appeared as if he had been lobotomized, laying on the ground with his eyes hanging open, his only movements being minute twitching across his body, as well as occasionally blinking and letting his chest expand and contract to breathe. Paragus looked on at the pathetic display for a little longer before he reached down to grab Broly's leg.

* * *

It was then that Paragus felt a small burst of pain. He looked behind him to see that a small chunk of the back of his armor had been shot off, the wound sizzling and the pieces of the damaged suit having dropped to the ground. He turned around, and this time it was Leemo who was wielding the smoking gun that had fired the shot, Cheelai's face looking over his shoulder and acting as support.

Paragus seemed to temporarily forget to take care of Broly. He left his son to lay on the floor in his vegetative state as he marched towards his only two allies. Leemo fired a series of shots at the approaching man, but they were all deflected with ease. Before he could even reload, Paragus lashed his whip out, letting it extend before smacking the gun out of the orange alien's hand, smashing it into pieces as it did so. He tried to run, but Paragus picked up the pace, and before he knew what hit him, Leemo was slapped to the side by the Saiyan, his face dragging across the ground as he did so. While he lay face-down and let his suit gather more dust, Paragus approached Cheelai. She too tried to unholster her weapon in a panic, but Paragus grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and tossed her to the side, where she landed right next to the semi-conscious Leemo. After recovering from the toss, she looked up to see Paragus was already towering over her. The man looked at her before he began to raise his whip.

* * *

While this situation escalated, Broly stayed down, staring blankly at the dirty sky. He didn't need to look forwards to know his friends - the only ones he had ever known aside from Bah - were in grave danger. He was painfully receptive to the sounds of the useless blaster shots and Cheelai and Leemo's fearful whimpers and yells.

Everything was so backwards, and he couldn't hope to comprehend it. It was supposed to be easy: He was supposed to reconcile with Paragus, he was supposed to get him to warm up with his comrades from the Frieza Force, they were supposed to live happily together. And yet here they were, with his friends on the edge of death, with his father under the influence something. Broly's primitive mind could not understand what that "something" was, or even conceptualize a theory.

With great effort, the gentle giant stumbled onto his feet. The scene proved even more dire than he had envisioned: Cheelai and Leemo were both on the ground, the latter face-down, and Paragus was rapidly approaching. Only then Broly was once again overcome by despair, for he realized that there was no longer any way for him to have the companionship of the alien pair and Paragus. Even if he was somehow able to stop their conflict, he knew that Cheelai would likely never fully forgive him for the assault on their lives. This already difficult decision on who to side with was only made difficult by another factor, for while Broly wasn't fully aware of it, his immense latent power was bubbling up rapidly. Already a faint green outline was flashing on and off around his body, his irises fading from black, to gold, back to black, over and over again.

Paragus began to crane his Ki whip back, preparing to strike Cheelai down. Broly desperately wanted more time to think, but he knew that this was his last chance to make his choice, but he couldn't think straight anymore in these traumatic circumstances.

And so, for the next few seconds, the last of Broly's self-awareness slipped away, and the decision was left to the raging Great Ape inside of him.

Before Paragus could launch his attack against her, Cheelai's hair was ruffled by a sudden gust, and her vision was obscured by a muscular man's backside. In the blink of an eye, Broly had inserted himself between the two opposing parties, preventing his beloved father from causing any more damage.

The old man didn't even get a chance to act confused. His final sight before being engulfed by the scorching light was a neon green ball of Ki tucked in between the upper and lower jaw of the enraged Broly.

The recoil from his mouth laser began to push Broly back, but not before allowing ample time for Cheelai to grab Leemo and run out of the way. His feet dragged across the ground as he let the furious energy wave escape until he couldn't even see his father's silhouette anymore. It travelled far and far, obliterating rock ranges and entire packs of spiders as it did so. Giant green Vampa beasts were able to see the monstrous blast from miles away. Eventually, the beam flew out of the atmosphere and trailed off into the vacuum of space, vanishing in a small flash.

* * *

By the time the blast finished, Broly took a moment to put his hands on his knees and pant heavily. Cheelai and Leemo came back to his sides, supporting him back to his feet. They were able to do this with ease, for the dust storm that was characteristic of Vampa's nighttime had seemingly faded.

Broly looked up to the sight of overwhelming clumps of smoke partially covering the incredibly long and wide crater that had been created by his exhausting blast. The brutish Saiyan was so drained from the attack that he second-guessed himself upon seeing a humanoid silhouette buried within the layers of smoke. One look at the aliens supporting either of his shoulders revealed that it was not an optical illusion, for they too saw what he was seeing good and well with appropriately concerned expressions.

Broly began to walk towards the familiar figure. As the smoke cleared, his alien friends' tense states slowly lifted upon realizing that Paragus was in zero state to fight. His armor had been totally seared off and his pink robe was horribly tattered. His exposed upper body was covered in smoking burns and profusely bleeding gashes, the flow of which ran all the way down to his hips. Worst of all, however, was his face, the entire left side of which was covered in one huge burn, the blinded eye once again oozing blood. While Cheelai and Leemo calmed down, however, Broly accelerated his pace, yelling for his father, clearly disturbed by the state he was in. Meanwhile, all Paragus could muster was a feeble, stilted walk.

As the two got closer, Paragus allowed himself to collapse onto Broly's shoulder. The feral Saiyan would feel his father's breathing, which was heavy and labored. He struggled to imagine the sort of pain he was experiencing: The pain which he had induced on him...

Broly began to tear up as he cradled Paragus' dying body across his shoulders. The raging sensation from earlier was already starting to flare up again: Already he felt was on the edge of losing control again, stronger than ever.

"No, son," Paragus weakly whispered as he tried to pat him on the back with his right arm. "No crying. If wouldn't be good to lose control now. You wouldn't wanna hurt your little friends, would you?"

This got Broly's eyes to widen and to think a little more. He looked back to see Cheelai and Leemo, who were curiously staring at the scene, no hint of malice or contempt on their expressions. It was slow, but for the first time ever, he was able to suppress that latent power and keep it up from coming out in full force, continuing to hold the bloodied, beaten Paragus as he did so. In exchange, he began to let more tears flow.

"I'm sorry dad. I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that you were hurting my friends, and then I got all scared and mad and..."

"Stop it!" While it wasn't overly booming, the relative amplitude of this command from Paragus compared to his present, feeble state surprised Broly. "You know full and well that I'm the one who has failed you, and the fact it has taken me getting killed, being revived and slowly dying again to realize that is a symbol of my frivolous will. However you decide to bury me will probably be a far more dignified death than what I deserve."

"I didn't get my sudden boost on my own, son. I made a deal with someone while in hell. I didn't actually see them, but all I know is they were a very bad woman: A witch, even. They revived me in exchange for bringing you to them. They wanted me to bring you to the Universe 6 Saiyan planet: Sadal, they called it. Just like the original homeworld of our ancient ancestors."

"I had no plan for what to do should I have successfully retrieved you. All that time I was trekking across Vampa to get to you, I just wanted to get you to follow me, to obey me again: Not once did I stop to think why I was trying to get to you, nor if that was what you really wanted. Knowing me, it was probably just to fulfill my stupid revenge fantasy, deep in my subconscious."

"Just one wish, my son. One more wish, and you'll never have to see or think about me again."

"Someday you're gonna die, Broly. Hopefully you'll go to heaven for being an infinitely better man than I ever was.

"But whatever you do for the rest of your life, my son..."

"Don't die on this planet."

As soon as his speech concluded, Paragus' breathing grew progressively slower and fainter. Broly clutched him tighter, and even lightly shook him in a desperate attempt to keep his pulse from fading. The attempt at resuscitation proved fruitless, however. And like a scene out of an ancient book of fables, Vampa's orange sun rose just in time to illuminate the closing seconds of the tragic life of Paragus, his endlessly loyal son holding him right as the proverbial clock ticked down to zero.


	4. The Choice

Cheelai groggily awoke from her slumber. She rolled over to the side of her bed and read the symbols on the electronic clock: From this she was able to deduce two details: For one, it had been well over a full day since Paragus had returned to reclaim his son, only to be put down again. And secondly, there was still a little under an hour to go before she was normally scheduled to rise. She looked back to her right to find Leemo was still fast asleep, tucked in handily under the green covers of the bed. She tried to get back to sleep, but another force prevented her from doing so.

The noise was faint, but her overly sensitive ears could still distinguish the gravelly stomps of feet walking across the dirt a fair distance from outside of their hut. The noise was far too broad and low-pitched to be that of a spider's legs, nor could she recognize it as anyone else's footsteps. Indeed, there was only one person who could be producing the sound.

The green woman quietly stepped down and off the bed and gently raised the curtains of the window directly opposite her bed, and sure enough, she could the familiar figure of Broly walking around directly outside of the cave mouth. He had been missing the entire previous day: he apparently needed some time to himself. The circumstances of this request proved a puzzle for Cheelai and Leemo; they understand where the wish was coming from, but they were also paranoid that there might be other forces out to get Broly besides his grotesquely overpowered father. Ultimately, with some reluctance, they had sent him off to manage his own affairs.

But now a new question was popping into Cheelai's mind: What was Broly up to? He seemed to be working pretty hastily, walking back and forth, carrying various objects each round. It was when she realized that Broly was loading supplies into their ship.

Making sure Leemo was still fast asleep, Cheelai quietly slipped into her purple, lightly armored suit and walked outside. "Hey!" she shouted with a wave, grabbing the Saiyan's attention. "What are you up to, my guy?" she asked.

Broly appeared a little unconfident, but he ultimately gathered the courage to speak. "I'm leaving, Cheelai." Upon seeing the woman's confused glance, he continued.

"For all of my life, I have known Vampa as my one and only home. My only form of sapient contact has been with my own father, and I have had no other friends besides an animal."

"On board the ship that first carried me and Paragus here, there were few books, and most of them were destroyed in the crash. But one survived: It was a book of astronomy. In my early years, dad would read that book to me almost every night: I learned how to read this way. I never grew tired of it, and I eventually began to read it on my own at every opportunity. Sifting through all the descriptions and pictures of so many wondrous and varied locales and species was one of my limited joys back then, and I revelled in every second of it. Father would sometimes have to rip the book out of my hands just so I could go to sleep! And even as his obsession with my training grew stronger and my free time shrunk, I would still find time to read it."

"Sadly, shortly into my adulthood, the book was destroyed in a spider raid. I was devastated; almost as much as I had been when I lost Bah. But I never stopped thinking about the things I saw in there. On the same nights I would cram in some reading, I instead began to look at the night sky just before the dust storms would settle in and watch the stars, dreaming of visiting all those wonderful planets and meeting those creatures for myself."

"When we first came to Earth with the rest of Frieza's fleet, I was able to look out the window for a very brief moment. I saw thick white sheets of the so-called 'snow' for the first time. I caught glimpses of 'trees', and even a few 'bears'. It was one thing to read about all of those things in that little book, but to see them in person was an indescribable feeling."

"After what happened the other night, I've decided that I can no longer stay here. There's an entire universe waiting for me to explore."

* * *

Cheelai stood to take in what Broly had just said. She then reached towards him, tightly embracing his body. "I'm proud of you, big guy." she said as she gave him some gentle pats on his back. Just then, they heard the door of their hut flap open, from which Leemo exited.

"I could hear your voice through the window. You're a surprisingly good speaker, Broly. You should write this stuff down when you get the chance!"

Broly looked back at him. "Ok, but how does one 'write'?" The other two giggled slightly before they grasped the unfortunate implications of what he had said, causing them to stifle that laughter.

"Looks like we're gonna have to teach you that after we head off." Cheelai said. "In fact, now that I think of it, where exactly are we gonna head off _to_?"

Broly had already prepared his response for this exact question. He calmly explained to both of them his father's brief description of Sadal and the Saiyans of the so-called Universe 6.

"Ok, I'm gonna stop you right there." Leemo chimed in. "Other Saiyans besides the ones that were on Planet Vegeta is one thing. But an entire planet of them, in another universe no less? Oh, and they're all good guys, too apparently. I mean, I've heard crazier stories, but not many. You sure Paragus wasn't concocting some fib to get you to tag along with him?"

"Actually," Cheelai interjected, "when I was still an outlaw, I used to know this guy named Saffron. We weren't really close friends or anything, but we talked every so often. When we did, hee would inevitably blabber on about 'interuniversal travel' and tell these crazy stories about gangs and criminals he would meet in distant galaxies. He got on my nerves for sure, but he seemed quite knowledgeable on the subject, and he did have a few coworkers, so maybe his statements had some truth to them?"

"C'mon Cheelai, use some common sense." said Leemo. "You know there's all kinds of scammers out on those backwater planets."

"Backwater planets?" Broly said curiously.

"Yup." Leemo said. "You see, before she joined the Frieza Force, Cheelai was a smuggler on a planet called Rak. It was a pretty impoverished place with lots of dark alleyways and decaying buildings to do all sorts of illegal stuff in. It was one of the few worlds Frieza personally blacklisted us from visiting: It had zero noteworthy resources and he didn't want to deal with the inconvenience of having to explain to families how their relatives in the force got their throat slashed by a bandit or kidnapped by a cultist."

Broly expressionlessly nodded his head, pretending that he understood what terms like 'blacklist' and 'illegal' meant.

"Anyways, as I was saying. OK, so let's say this Saffron guy wasn't trying to lure you into a pyramid scheme with his groupies or whatever. How do we know there's actually real Saiyans out there, especially if they're so different from the ones in our Universe?"

The trio pondered the question. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Broly's head.

"I know! Let's ask Kakarot, maybe he knows!"

"Ya sure about that?" Leemo asked. "Just because he's a Saiyan doesn't mean he's the oracle of all knowledge about them. Then again, he did say he was friends with a God, so…"

"Eh, what the heck, it's worth a try. But still, we're gonna need a way to summon him…"

Broly held up his finger, gesturing the others to wait. He walked out of the cave, his chest bulging as he took in a deep breath.

"KAKAROT!"

At first, there were no abnormal sounds or sights aside from the usual commotion of Vampa. Then, a sharp swishing sound rung throughout the cave. Leemo put his hand above his eyes and looked more closely outside, but there was still nobody out there.

"Hey guys!"

This voice startled the orange alien off-balance. All of the group turned to look behind him, where Goku stood peering at the group with a wave.

"Oops! Sorry for scarin' ya, little guy!" Goku said as he leaned down and smiled at Leemo.

"Don't call me 'little guy', I'm almost 50 years old!" Leemo replied as he jutted out his face into Goku's, who in turn stood back up. He then looked back at Broly.

"I could sense that you needed me. What's up?"

"We're about to leave Vampa for good." said Broly. "But before that, I wanna know if these so-called Universe 6 Saiyans are real, and how to get to their planet."

Goku looked elated after hearing this question. "Yup! I've met 'em a few times. They're cool, and pretty strong too! I've never gotten a chance to visit their planet though, although Vegeta would like to once he has more time."

"Oh! That reminds me. One of the Saiyans I met was named Kale. She didn't appear too threatening at first, but when she got angry, she ended up revealing a transformation just like yours!"

"Transformation?" Broly asked.

Goku now appeared confused. "You don't remember that? Green hair, huge muscles? No?"

Broly nodded his head back and forth.

"How about regular Super Saiyan? Yellow hair, normal-sized muscles?"

Broly nodded again.

"Wow. I don't think even I was that out of control when I turned Super Saiyan for the first time. At least I can actually remember how angry I was! I really don't think I'm gonna be able to help you on that front; only Kale can. She learned how to control that form, and pretty quickly at that."

"Well, anyways, I gotta get going now. My wife Chi-Chi's probably already gonna be hounding me for slacking off from my farm work, and I certainly don't want to keep her waiting even longer! I hope I was able to help."

Goku turned his back to Broly and flashed him a thumbs-up with his left hand. Broly responded with Cheelai's OK hand, now almost perfect save for a pinky that was curved a little too much. Goku then put his fingers up to his forehead, and before they knew it he was gone.

* * *

At that point the trio decided that Planet Rak would be their destination. For the next hour or so, they wasted no time loading up their ship. While Leemo put the house and its contents back into capsules and tossed them into storage, Broly lifted up and carried other supplies into the ship with Cheelai's guidance. The process was rather tedious, with Broly quickly growing bored of it.

At one point, after unloading a cooler containing frozen rations into one of the main storage rooms, Broly stopped and said he had to get something. With Cheelai's permission, he blasted off from the cave. Not even 2 minutes later, the Saiyan returned with what at first appeared to be a very strange-looking bit of cargo hanging on his back. Cheelai shrieked what she realized what it was.

"Broly, I thought you had taken care of him!" she yelled upon seeing Paragus' corpse being haphazardly straddled along his son's shoulder. While it hadn't decayed too much, there were still dried blood stains along the man's back, and it appeared noticeably dirtier.

"I did, I just think it would be nicer to bury him in a prettier place."

Cheelai knew there were still quite a few supplies left to load onto their ship, and she didn't want to waste the energy she needed for those on arguing with Broly about why Paragus did not deserve such treatment. With a sigh, she offered to show her Saiyan friend how to properly handle the body. For the next 10 minutes, they cleaned the body before placing it into a glass casket.

During this time, it was also decided that if they were going to appear in public, Broly should get something to cover his upper body. After some searching around their vessel, they found a new suit of armor for him. While the white chestplate with dark green shoulderguards was a bit of an older model, it still did its job at covering Broly up serviceably.

Eventually, the physical labor was finished, and it was now up to Cheelai and Leemo to prepare the ship for take-off. While they were in the cockpit firing up the engines, however, a familiar voice spoke from the back of the room.

"I need to go do one last thing!" said Broly.

"Couldn't you have done that earlier?" Cheelai asked. "Well, thankfully the ship's gonna need about another 15 minutes to get ready for flight. Still, be quick!"

Before they knew, Broly was eagerly stomping out of the ship's side. Through the cockpit, they were able to see the Saiyan fly away one more time.

* * *

Broly flew far away from his humble abode. From up high in the air he was able to scan the barren landscape of Vampa, carefully eyeing the vats of acid and the various creatures on the surface. Finally, he reached his destination: A large settlement of hulking green Vampa beasts, only their fur poking out like thin sheets from within a group of craters.

Broly lowered his altitude while continuing to search around. Having been alerted by his presence, some of the beasts were now beginning to rise from their holes, their thick, long bodies growing and ultimately revealing red-eyed, fanged faces. They stared down the Saiyan as he travelled through the sky. This was all according to his plan, however.

Broly began to fly circles around the encampment. As he did so, more of the monsters awoke and began to stare daggers at him. Some of them growled while looking at him, while others gnashed their fangs together. Eventually, all of them arose from their slumber: All, that is, except for one.

At the very end of the little tribe was one more hole. This hole was much bigger than any of the others, and it too was filled by the pelt of the beasts. However, unlike the others, this one's pelt was a darker, more faded shade of green, and each and every hair was slightly longer, denoting age.

Broly finally ceased his flight and allowed himself to drop down right in the middle of the horde. He came down in front of the remaining dormant predator with a thud, leaving a small crater where he landed. He ignored the intent stares of the other animals, even as they leaned in to inspect him even more closely. Instead, he looked down into the filled-up hole.

With a hint of reluctance, he kicked a nearby pebble down into the hole. It lazily fell deeper into the abnormally-sized hole before making a muffled thump against the creature's fur.

At first, there were no signs of response. Nonetheless, Broly crouched down and waited, watching carefully. The monsters behind him were now growing more viscious, some of them attempting to reach out and bite him. He paid them no heed despite how close they were. Eventually, the Saiyan's naive stoicism and patience paid off, for his target began to emerge from its abode. Even before it grew to its full height, it towered over all the other beasts.

When it did fully grow and reveal its face, however, that wasn't the first thing Broly looked for. Before he noticed the beast's wrinkly fur that partially drooped over its eyes or the barely noticeable scars on its muzzle, he looked right towards its left ear. He smiled upon noticing that it was cleanly cut off.

The beast leaned in curiously towards who he at first believed to be a stranger. Upon noticing the green pelt wrapped around the man's waist, however, some very faint memories flashed through his aging mind: Memories of a bearded man shooting a beam that had cut off his ear many long years ago, and the little boy who had taken that ear and wrapped it around his waist, even thought it was clearly too big for him at the time. He at first wondered if the man in front of him was someone different; it seemed strange, almost impossible for someone so little to have grown so tall and muscular. However, despite the signs of age having morphed him to such an extreme degree along with his new, pristine white suit of armor, he still retained that very same childlike face and long black hair that the beast recognized from his limited memory.

Despite, this, however, he continued to regard the man with suspicion, for he could no longer remember what had transpired prior to that singular, vivid memory. As he pondered this, the man spoke.

"Hello, Bah. I'm Broly. Remember me? We were friends."

The beast was confused. 'Bah'... He recognized that name. The memory was hazy, but it was certainly there, tucked within his primordial subconscious. Any context surrounding that name, however, was lost. He shot Broly a questioning look.

"Don't you remember? We used to relax and train together all the time. We had a bit of a falling out, though. My dad didn't like you."

Bah looked back upon some of the most vivid battles of his life. He recalled a few notable encounters with large spider hordes and other beasts, but there were definitely some blanks here and there. Not knowing what to think, he maintained a neutral expression.

Broly sighed. "Well, even if you don't remember me, I wanna say goodbye. I've been here for a while, but I'm leaving to go explore other places. I'm gonna miss you very, very much."

Broly got up even closer to his old friend's face, so much so that he could feel his heavy exhaling. He then began to rub the center of his massive, fuzzy forehead. At this point, while he still couldn't remember any major details, Bah did recognize this familiar feeling; a temporary sensation of pure bliss in what had been in a grueling life of survival for the animal. He snuggled his face up closer to Broly's chest, accepting even more gentle rubbing and eventually hugging around his snout.

As much as he wanted it to, however, Broly's moment with his first companion could not last forever. He had already spent some time getting there and awakening Bah, and now it was time to go. He began to walk away, a translucent white aura appearing around him as he prepared to take flight. He shot one final glance behind him at Bah. It was light, but he could tell there was a smile on his face. He smiled back too, turning back before he could show his watering eyes to the creature. Dust and pebbles scattered all around him as he lifted off and darted back where he came.

* * *

"Let's get this show on the road!" Leemo enthusiastically shouted, the ship he was piloting rumbling as it slowly hovered out of the cave and into the open rock fields. Cheelai sat confidently to his right, while Broly was at the left, taking in what would likely be the last sight of Vampa he would see for a very long time. Cheelai could just barely see his sullen expression from her angle, but it was too late to try to comfort him now. The overall vibe was oddly quiet considering the adventure the 3 were ready to embark on, the only sounds being those of the monitor on Leemo's dashboard, showing a flight map to Planet Rak.

"It's kinda gloomy in here, don't you think?" The middle-aged man asked to his crew. "Let's turn on some music, shall we?"

He reached down to his dashboard and pressed a button. A new interface popped up, this time showing names and numbers for radio channels. However, as he feared, most of his favorite channels were mere static in this area. He fiddled around with two knobs directly below the button he pressed earlier, trying to get any sort of signal. To his surprise, he found a channel that worked.

"Welcome back to Station TG-56, where we bring the most exotic tunes in the galaxy to your doorstep!" spoke a suave announcer's voice. "Now, recently we've been getting some complaints that we haven't been giving the northwest regions enough airtime. We're gonna resolve that, starting now! Our first song for our one-hour Earthling Music Marathon is a jolly one some of you may already be familiar with: Here comes Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku by Zard!"

The room of the ship was encompassed by a vibrant tune. Broly in particular rapidly grew enamored by the melody. Even thought he couldn't understand a single thing that was being said, he still fell for the energetic, adventurous rock symphony. Leemo gave a light grin and Cheelai giggled as the Saiyan began to involuntarily rock left and right to the rhythm. His worries about the trip had seemingly melted away, even when Leemo entered the ship into high gear and blasted off out of Vampa's atmosphere and into the starry galaxy that awaited them.


	5. The Garbage Bin of the Universe

_Hello everyone!_

_I don't usually post these sorts of pre-chapter messages, but Primal Legend, formerly known as the Man in the Green Pelt, is now almost a month old! To celebrate this little milestone, I present Chapter 4 slightly early! Enjoy!_

* * *

The small metal room was for the most part hollow. The soundproofed walls ensured that any external noise from outside the little orb-shaped vessel could not be heard, nor could they potentially disturb any announcement that may come over the intercoms mounted on the walls. The silence was so profound that the only other noise that could be heard was the sound of a pencil dragging itself across paper.

In the center of the room was a single, unremarkable wooden table where Broly and Cheelai were sat. Around the table's legs were a menagerie of broken pencils; nearly half a dozen scattered all over the floor. Broly sat with an intact pencil, scribbling his ABCs in order over and over. His calligraphy was just barely legible and he simply lacked the fine motor skills, at least for the moment, to hold it correctly, preferring to wrap his fingers directly around it, but he was making steady progress on the exercise. _At least he isn't smashing the thing into the sheet anymore_ thought Cheelai, eyeing the blunt lead marks on the corner of the paper where Broly had done so, along with scratches of the material where he had begun to write only for his utensil to crack under the excess force he was using on the object.

Right as Broly finished writing a curvy letter Z, an announcement came over the PA system.

"We've made it to Rak." spoke the accent of Leemo. "Ya might wanna stop whatever you're doing back there! We're gonna be landing in 5 minutes tops."

While Cheelai picked up and tossed the broken pencil shards into the trash chute that in turn launched them into the bowels of space, Broly took out a small capsule and put the table inside of it. The pair then headed off to the cockpit where Leemo awaited. Broly instantly grew excited upon seeing their destination outside the windows. The dark blue orb was relatively small compared to both Earth and Vampa, but still maintained a formidable size just as any planet should. In addition, it was rapidly growing bigger as the trio's craft approached it.

* * *

Eventually, the ship rocketed headfirst into the planet's atmosphere. Underneath a thick layer of clouds was a dark blue, starless sky. From this point on, Cheelai stood directly over Leemo's shoulder, guiding him through the unfamiliar territory. At first, Broly was confused, for all he could see below through the windows were rocks and hills. At one point he thought he had spotted the lights of buildings, but upon closer inspection it was a cluster of eyes of a pack of creatures whose bodies were obscured by the murkiness of their environment. This landscape began to slowly fade, being steadily replaced by a deepening cluster of dark mountains. Leemo lowered the ship in preparation for its landing, slowing down and carefully swerving around each and every one of the stone behemoths. Broly's attention span was fading away at this point; the view was even more disinteresting than Vampa. So he was mesmerized when the little mountain ranges faded away to reveal a large cluster of lit-up buildings, totally surrounded by a protective barrier of the mountains the crew had just spent time wading through.

Cheelai released her grip from Leemo's shoulder as the latter dropped the ship even lower, now just barely gliding over buildings. Broly could now see that these structures were far less brilliant up-close; a majority of them were nothing more than tenements, crammed together and filthy. Some were connected by loose, rickedy-looking bridges, while others were built one on top of the other in stacks that resembled makeshift skyscrapers, only having ladders to get from one floor to another. The trio's ship passed by one of these ladders, giving Broly a brief moment to see a very surprised hooded figure staring back at him before he was out of sight.

Upon reaching the outskirts of the massive slum, the scene below changed again, this time to a sort of parking lot. As their vessel found an empty spot and slowly dropped down, its crew could see a wide variety of other ships parked along with them. Most of them were either fairly small civilian cruisers or larger, beat-up business-class vessels with unfamiliar symbols spray-painted over the normal logos of whatever organization the ship originally belonged to.

In the shadows, two slim green aliens in jumpsuits watched the unfamiliar vessel land.

"Hey," one of them whispered to the other "do you recognize that thing?"

"It looks like a Frieza Force ship to me."

"Why are they in this place, especially without any backup?"

"Must be rogues. Wonder what they're here for?"

The hardened crooks were still caught off-guard by the loud clang of the ship's front door flapping open across the poorly paved ground. At first, only a dim light could be seen from within. Then, two small aliens walked out, with a much bigger, more humanoid one right behind them. The lights turned off behind them as they stepped out into the cold air of the endless night.

"Hmm…" The first alien thought. "I've seen the girl before. She's the one who took that Galactic Patrol ship, remember?"

"Holy crap, yes! Imagine that, those clowns wanna go around preaching to people about "justice" and "civilized behavior" but can't even keep their own ships from getting robbed! I was laughing my ass off for the rest of the day after that."

The quipper's friend looked back at the party. "I remember seeing the old man on a recruitment poster for the technology division. That leaves the burly one…"

Despite his size, the man was at the very pack of the small pack. His shorter companions were chatting amongst themselves while he remained silent.

"Hey, uh…"

"What?"

"You think that guy might be a Saiyan? He has the physique and looks of one."

"Don't be ridiculous, they all died off decades ago; the ones from this Universe, at least. He's certainly too muscular to be one from Universe 6."

"Hey!"

The two green aliens were caught off-guard by Cheelai's call to them. Leemo was next to her, while Broly stood behind them, towering over both.

"How the heck did you hear us?" The unfamiliar bandits said in almost perfectly in sync.

"You'd be surprised at how good my hearing is. Served me good for when I had to eavesdrop on occasion. Anyways, how do you know about the existence of multiple universes?" She asked.

"You familiar with Saffron?" the taller one replied.

"Yeah, I knew him OK before I left. Has he been bothering you?"

"Oh, you wouldn't believe it. Ever since you left, he's been looking for other people to yap about his supposed 'business opportunity' to."

"Do you know where we can find him?"

"He's always hanging out at the town square, particularly at the pub."

"Thank you!" Cheelai exclaimed. The trio then made an OK hand in unison before leaving.

"You're a bit of a celebrity around these parts, ain't ya?" Leemo asked Cheelai.

"I dunno, guess I am. It's a pleasant surprise to be sure."

* * *

Broly, Cheelai and Leemo continued past the run-down lot and into one of the many streets of the sprawling shantytown. As they walked, the gang got a sobering look at the squalor of the place. The street was crowded and filled with little market stalls, sat at by destitute-looking merchants selling fruits, vegetables and other mysterious items of questionable quality for Zeni amounts that barely scratched past the 100s. For the many others walking along or past them, it was almost guaranteed that they would be wearing some sort of robe, mask or anything else that could obscure their face. As such, it was difficult for Leemo and Broly to understand the wide spectrum of species that inhabited the slum, only distinguishable by the tiny specks of skin that were visible through their masks.

Cheelai led the way, showing uncanny familiarity with the confusingly laid out, dreadful-looking streets, which were only just adequately lit by simplistic streetlights; at least, the ones that hadn't fallen into disrepair. Meanwhile, Leemo was noticeably distressed by the squalor; he remained careful not to look at any one person for two long, and his left hand was intentionally rested right above the holster containing his blaster. In a strange twist, Broly was the one who showed the most uncertainty with the place which by all means still looked like heaven compared to the dead world he had been forced to endure for nearly his entire life. He hung out at the back of the party, taking great care not to be seperated for too long from his friends at any time. In particular, he was unsettled by the glances of the various passerby on their trek; he could rarely see their faces, but he could tell they were staring right at him, worried by his unnatural physique and complexion.

At one point, Broly saw two people who hadn't covered their face. It appeared to be a mother and her child, the former wrapping her hand around her progeny. Or was it the little one's father? The Saiyan could distinguish the gender of the bulbous, glistening pink aliens' heads, each with a large, beady set of eyes and no distinguishable mouths. Broly was so transfixed on the interesting-looking creatures that he initially failed to notice the masked marauder wielding a curved knife stomping right behind them. Before the assailant could land any sort of blow, the pink alien parent pulled out a blaster and shot the crook in the head, his body crumpling lifelessly and partially crushing a nearby stall. The pink alien only took a second of pause before it turned back to guide its child, seemingly unphased by the attempt against their life. Indeed, most everybody present at the scene showed equal indifference. Even the shopkeeper whose merchandise had been ruined simply let out a defeated sigh as he began to dispose of the body and his ruined produce. While Broly simply stood there in shock and confusion, Leemo was utterly chilled by what he had seen. It wasn't so much the violence itself: He had seen far, far worse in his years in service to Frieza. But the universal, callous disregard that had been shown towards this attack and its aftermath practically forced him to speak his mind.

"How does a society like this even function?" he asked.

"It doesn't." Cheelai deadpanned. "The unwritten rule is that you either endure the conditions or you scrounge up the money and leave. There's a reason they call this place the 'Garbage Bin of the Universe'."

* * *

The trio finally exited the network of streets and reached the fabled town square. Despite being a large, open circular area, the crowding issue had barely been resolved; all three members of the team still had to thread carefully, worrying about getting separated from one another. While the houses were still in as decrepit a state as ever, there were a few relatively passable-looking businesses in there; among them was little wooden building with the word "PUB" hastily written in bold, red point on its top.

Upon entering, their first observation was a light of smell of mold in there despite looking far more presentable compared to the other buildings, what with a simple yet functional array of metal tables and chairs. The walls were solid gray and had a few spotlights lighting up the room, but nothing else aside from that. The building was consumed by rambunctious talking and the sounds of clanging bottles and pans, and the cafeteria was not unlike something one would see in a military base.

Broly and his friends searched through the establishment, taking care not to aggravate any of the brutes gargling down beverages the gentle giant did not recognize or the strange, secluded figures sitting alone. Eventually, Cheelai ran up to and poked someone on the back. He turned around, revealing slightly lighter green skin than the woman who had brought his attention, and a small, pointed mat of equally upright hair. His main physical difference from Cheelai was far longer, lankier legs, and his military pants and boots contrasted with the plain, dirty, torn-up white t-shirt he covered his upper body with.

"Hey girl!" Saffron exclaimed in a voice whose pitch was just high enough to get on Cheelai's nerves. "It's been a long time, hasn't it? Why did you come back to this dump? Did you finally see the light and now want to join my prestigious business?"

The woman had to restrain an audible groan as she gestured Leemo to sit down along with her. Broly stood over them, listening in on the conversation.

"No Saffron, I'm not here to join your downline, thank you very much. I am, however, interested in this interuniversal travel thing you got figured out."

"Oh, I'm glad you asked! I'm totally willing to divulge my secrets of travelling across the entire multiverse. All you need to do is buy my 1000 zeni initiation ki-"

Before he could finish, Saffron felt the sting of Cheelai's hand making contact with his cheek in the form of a brutal slap.

"Listen pal, I don't have time for this crap. See my big friend over there? His name is Broly. It wasn't my choice to go on this little adventure; it was all his. And he's very excited. He's been through so much bullshit in his life, and he wants to go visit the Saiyans of Universe 6 not only to meet what remains of his people, but also to get his rage under control. Because when Broly gets enraged, he can and will hurt you."

Cheelai felt filthy for saying that out loud after all she had done so far to protect her friend, but thankfully Saffron showed great concern, having clearly fallen for her bluff. Broly also seemed to be a little saddened by the remark, but Leemo whispered about the bluff into his ear, and before long he was back to normal.

"Well, alrighty then." Saffron said. "It all began 3 years ago…"

* * *

Broly listened in on the discussion for a few minutes; at least, he tried to. Saffron continued to ramble on about his life story in that time period before beginning a talk involving a bunch of mathematical mumbo jumbo Broly had difficulty comprehending. He looked over to Cheelai and Leemo, both of whom seemed to be fully enthralled in the speech despite the earlier tension.

_That guy sure has a talent for getting people invested in nonsense… _Broly thought to himself as he began to pace back and forth out of boredom. His attention towards the one-sided conversation began to wane, until he was eventually freely wandering around the small bar, walking from table to table looking for something to do. He had no money on him to purchase something from the bar, and Cheelai hadn't brought their reserve currency from the ship, seeing as this was supposed to be a quick, one-day trip.

While he was looking around, he noticed a black, bat-like humanoid creature gesturing him to come over with his right hand while he held a glass bottle filled with an unfamiliar amber liquid in his left. Seeing as he had nothing else to do and he didn't exactly have to fear the possibility of being injured or killed considering his brimming Saiyan strength, he went over the being, taking note of the pair of black wings folded up behind his long ears.

"Hey there big guy," he said in a gruff voice, "wanna play a game?"

To the stranger's surprise, Broly gave a broad grin. "Of course!" he said with an innocent, happy tone. "I would love to play a game. I'm bored!"

The humanoid had to suppress laughter as he reached towards the rectangularly stretched paper bag at the floor. From within it he grabbed out 3 10-pack cases of the unknown drink.

"If you can drink more than me," he said, "I'll give you 2000 zeni."

"And if I lose?" Broly asked.

"Hmm... I think I'll take that armor of yours."

Broly gave a naive nod and sat down on the chair the alien had laid out for him.

_This guy's a total sucker!_ He thought to himself as he unwrapped the first full bottle of beer. _He's gonna lose everything before his little pals have time to help him._

After quickly choosing a nearby, more muscular red alien as a referee, the drinking contest was set to begin, but not before a small crowd gathered around the table to spectate.

"Go!" the referee shouted.

The bat man was the first to pick up his drink. He slurped the whole bottle of the classic alcohol in less than 20 seconds. He then tossed it aside and picked up another bottle; this one took 21 seconds, slightly longer but still good. Finally, he went through nearly 3/4 of another bottle before the referee called the end of Round 1.

The alien turned to Broly, about to instinctively taunt him, as was typical of those unaware of his total resistance to the adverse effects of alcohol. His smug, slitted yellow eyes blew up in size as he realized his supposed victim had already guzzled down nearly twice the amount of beer he had.

"This game isn't very fun." Broly said with a childish bluntness that got on his rival's nerves. "But I'll play to the end." His opponent calmed himself upon noticing that his speech was already a little more slurred than it had been earlier. He may have won the battle, but he's lost the war he thought one more time as more beers were pulled out for Round 2.

* * *

"And that's how my company saved the Marlosians!"

Saffron capped off his long diatribe with a self-assured grin. Cheelai and Leemo began to take mental notes, only to suddenly realize they had basically learned no useful information. The latter reached into his pocket and pulled out a small time-keeping utensil, only to then make another revelation: The speech had burned nearly 10 minutes of their time.

"So," Cheelai began, "can you give us the rundown on how to get to Universe 6?"

"...Alright," Saffron replied with a hint of annoyance, "basically, every so often, wormholes open at the very edges of the Universe. These wormholes can take you to other universes based on their time and location. I have devised a formula to figure where the next one will appear and where it will lead. And are you in luck, for if my current calculations are correct, there should a wormhole to Universe 6 spawning tomorrow morning!"

"Well, thanks my guy." Cheelai said as she stood up. "Anyways, let's go look for Bro-"

It was only then that she saw the huge crowd that had gathered around one of the tables in the far corner of the little shop. Not seeing her powerful ally anywhere else, she rushed over with Leemo in tow, fearing the possibility of a fight breaking out. At first, upon breaking through the crowd, that didn't seem to be the case, for Broly was sitting at a table with only one other bat-like alien at it.

"Broly, come over here!"

She once again grew concerned upon seeing Broly's sorry state. His eyes were struggling to keep themselves open, and his balance and walking were in a serious fuddle. While Leemo held up his arm for support, Cheelai now could see that there were several empty glass bottles on the floor, each leaking traces of an amber liquid. She also noticed some stains of this beverage on Broly's chestplate, contaminating the pure white material it was sculpted with.

"Did you..." she began to ask to the other alien at the table. "...Did you get Broly involved in a drinking contest?"

"Hey, c'mon girl, it was only 5 rounds!" he said with a snarky smile and a shrug.

Leemo kept his grip on Broly even as both of their ears were pierced by Cheelai's high-pitched storm of profanities. Broly began to almost seductively stare down Leemo, his face inching up closer to his partner's to the point where he could catch a strong whiff of the Saiyan's alcohol-scented breath.

"Frieeeeeeend..." he managed to drunkenly croak out as he gently patted Leemo's head.

All Leemo could really do was continue to keep Broly from falling on his face. _Good thing he can maintain his good nature even when under the influence_ he thought with relief.

Suddenly, they heard another shriek from Cheelai: This time one of fear. They turned back to see her enemy's thin black arm wrapped around her throat, with the other holding a knife to her head.

"Ya shoulda stayed outta this, toots. I may have lost money to your little freak over there, but you'll make that all back on the slave market."

Before he could react, Broly shoved Leemo aside. He was able to straighten himself somewhat as he marched right up to the swindler.

"And what are you gonna do? I've faced bigger men than you. Now, go away you dim-witted sack of-"

A sickeningly loud crunch was heard all throughout the room as Broly took down the crook with an unrestrained, drunken headbutt. He released his grip around his victim as his body collapsed the floor with a thump. While Cheelai leaned open her savior to recover from what had just happened, a murmur turned into an uproar as all the other people who had flocked around earlier rapidly realized the man wasn't showing any signs of breathing, and his eyes were blank and glazed; Broly's attack, denoted by the deep purple bruise on the bat man's forehead, had instantly killed him. It didn't take much more for Cheelai and Leemo to decide it was time to leave, quickly carrying Broly out of there as they did so. They were so intent on leaving that they hardly noticed Saffron had seemingly vanished.

* * *

The hooded figure hastily scampered through the least populated street that connected to the square. The scene of the quick, yet brutal fight that he had just seen take place in the bar was fresh in his mind; that was all that had been needed to make him fully understand the monster he was dealing with and why his client sought after him.

Upon reaching his filthy home with a large hole in the roof, Saffron removed his cloak and slammed the squeaky door behind him. He sat at his desk, turning on a basic communication device and letting it boot up while he scrambled through a stack of papers. Eventually, he found what he was looking for; he didn't pull the sheet out from the stack fully, but just enough to reveal the strange code composed of geometric shapes at the very bottom. He picked up his loaded-up communicator and raised it above the code, automatically scanning it. The device automatically opened its video messenger app, dialing an unknown number.

The image was difficult to decipher through the static and the crack along the screen, but Saffron was eventually able to make out an armored, short blue woman with short violet hair.

"Welcome to the official Frieza Force hotline! I am Berriblu. What can we do for you?"

* * *

Broly slowly flapped open his eyes and lifted himself upright in his bed. The first thing he noticed is that he couldn't remember how he got there, or most of the events of last night. But that wasn't what truly concerned him. Whatever conflicting thoughts this lack of memory could've caused with him was mostly blotted out by a sense of unease. He couldn't figure out what it was. As he scanned his little room, he noticed the blinds to its one window were down. He begrudgingly walked up to them and, not knowing how to open them properly, instead lifted them up with his hands.

Cheelai and Leemo woke up to a jolt as they heard Broly's stomping yet again. They briefly feared another situation similar to what had happened on Vampa few days earlier, but those subsided as he ran into their room. Still, he seemed noticeably panicked, and was wildly gesturing them to go outside with his arms. And so they did, and they were horrified to see an armada of Frieza Force ships of all shapes and sizes clogging up Rak's eternal night sky.

"We need to get going now!" Leemo loudly whispered.

"It won't do any good, they've set up a blockade." Cheelai replied, studying the ships' formations. "We're gonna have to fight our way out."

Broly seemed disappointed upon hearing this. Leemo, however, chimed in again.

"We don't need to cause that much of a scene. I bet if they're looking for Broly, Frieza himself will be with them; he's the only one who can hope to stand up to him power-wise."

He then looked towards the shantytown. He noticed one of the bigger, elliptical motherships was hovering right over town square.

"And I think I know where he might be..."

* * *

The gang made it to the square after a long run. At first, the crowding seemed even worse than before, but then they realized it was because half of the square itself was occupied by the docked mothership and several organized formations of soldiers on either side of it. None of the outlaws and citizens of Rak dared approach the intimidating force that had taken their square.

The door of the main ship flapped open and crashed onto the ground. The light within gave way to three figures. To the left was the stout, blue-skinned, elderly Berriblu; to the right, the equally as short, bug-eyed, yellow-skinned Kikono. And standing between both of them was their white, reptilian leader; the emperor of the universe, whose cold, expressionless gaze drew frightened gazes and whispers amongst the crowd before them, as well as causing cold sweat to drip from Broly, Cheelai and Leemo's brows.

The madman then smiled and faced his prey.

"It's been a while, hasn't it monkey?" uttered the aristocratic voice of Frieza.


	6. Showdown Against The Emperor

Fear was in the air being patrolled the infamous conqueror's warships. In the square of Rak's one and only town, the dregs of the dysfunctional society stood face-to-face with Frieza's heavily armed band of soldiers, led by the slender warlord himself. The only one who dared face him directly was Broly, with Cheelai and Leemo directly behind him. The rest merely trembled where they stood, waiting for someone or something to break the unnerving silence. That someone proved to be none other than Frieza's prime target.

"How did you find us?" Broly asked. "Leemo took great care to mask our location."

"My army has many other ways to keep tabs on certain people." Frieza replied. "While you were on your little excursion, we were able to send out warrants for you all over the galaxy. And considering how distinct Saiyans like you are, it was only a matter of time until someone answered the call."

Just then, Cheelai felt someone sharply shove her to the side. Upon regaining balance, she saw Saffron running headfirst into the line of soldiers: Strangely enough, none of them pulled their guns against him. As he stood right beside Berriblu and turned back to the crowd of civilians with a smug grin, however, the answer became clear.

"Saffron!" Cheelai shouted more angry than ever. "How could you do this?"

"Sorry girl, but when your main client's been missing for months and the debts are piling up, you gotta do something about it! Trust me, you won't be thinking of _him _for much longer once you get a taste of my newfound 60,000,000 zeni fortune! Speaking of which..."

"Don't worry about it, Saffron." Frieza said turned towards him. "The money has already been forwarded to your bank account."

While Saffron began to do a joyous little dance, the giver of his reward faced back towards Broly, walking a little closer as he spoke.

"So you're trying to run off to Universe 6? Interesting. Planning to meet their Saiyans, I assume? I've met them in the past; truly fascinating creatures, they are. Truth be told, I wouldn't mind tagging along with you. It has been quite a while since I destroyed Planet Vegeta, and I am feeling a bit nostalgic..."

"Wait... ...What did you say about Vegeta?" Broly asked.

"Oops! Slip of the tongue. Yes, they were a bit too much of a threat for me back then, so I had to dispose of them. Didn't really help much in hindsight since the most bothersome of you apes survived anyway, but ah well, the less thorns in my side, the better."

To the crowd's surprise, Broly didn't seem too angered by this. He merely let out a resounding "hmph" before he spoke again.

"If that was a deliberate attempt to anger me, you failed. I barely knew the other Saiyans, and the only things I've heard about them were negatives ones from my father. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna let you hurt the ones from Universe 6, nor am I going to follow you around as your pet."

"I don't think you understand, Broly. One way or another, you're staying in this Universe. I'll even let you go back to Vampa: Just don't move around so much, ok?"

"The answer is no, Frieza."

"...Very well. I suppose I'll have to resort to less considerate measures. Hopefully we have a big enough cage for you back on one of my ships."

Frieza entered his standard battle pose, leaning forward slightly with both of his arms outstretched. Broly did not enter a battle-ready stance, continuing to stand upright and stare blankly at his opponent.

"Wait, wait!" Saffron yelled as he walked right in front of Frieza. "Where's the other part of my reward?! You said you would give me a favor within your power!"

The tyrant stood upright again, giving an audible sigh. "Yes yes, what do you want?" he groaned.

"Lord Frieza, I demand that you take me to the most marvelous, far away world in this universe, with Cheelai as my bride!"

The woman became even more furious; she surely would've ran up and strangled him were it not for Frieza and his men being right next to him. The dictator himself only gave a slight grin.

"Your wish is my command."

Saffron began to jump and cheer even more wildly than before. "You hear that, losers?!" he bragged to the crowd, "I'm leavin' this dump for good! You all called me a spineless scammer, but look who won in the end! I'm even gonna take Cheelai with me and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

Following this boast, the lanky green man tried to run towards Cheelai. However, to his surprise, he felt something pull him back by the neck, choking him. He tried again with the same result. His pride no longer blinding him entirely, he noticed that Frieza's thick, white tail was wrapped around his neck. Before he could even ask what he was doing, his head was twisted to the side with an accompanying crack. When he was released, he crashed on the ground lifelessly.

Broly was shocked by the act of cruelty. "How could you do that?! He helped you!"

"What's the problem?" Frieza sarcastically replied. "His wish was to be carried to a mystical, far way world, and I did exactly that: Hell fits both of those criteria, no? Now there's just the matter of the traitor..."

Frieza quickly fired a Death Beam directly at Cheelai, but Broly smacked it aside with his arm in the nick of time. Now he was tired of playing games: His eyes were flashing slightly gold and he was ready to give the tyrant what for. This growing tenacity was reflected in his heavier breathing and light, animalistic growling. It ended up coming as a surprise when he ignited his white aura but ended up flying straight past Frieza instead, heading towards the border of the town. Frieza chuckled before his deep purple Ki aura enveloped him as he rocketed after Broly.

"Why is he running away from Frieza?" a three-eyed alien in the back of the group of thugs, thieves and peasants asked.

"He's not running from him: he's luring him away." Cheelai said. "Broly may not look like it, but he's a good guy. He wouldn't want anyone here to get hurt in the crossfire."

She then looked back at the rest of Frieza's army, now led by Kikono. "Besides, we got other things to worry about."

* * *

Frieza and Broly flew farther and farther away from the town square. Their raging, clashing auras were clearly visible by the citizens of the outskirts below and the soldiers raiding their homes. After swerving a few more times to dodge the firing weapons of Frieza's ships, the two combatants faded into the circle of mountains. They continued to fly and smash into each other, now taking care to avoid the pillars of stone. Neither could seem to get a definitive upper hand, but Broly eventually saw an opportunity. Yet another mountain came up in front of him, but instead of dodging it, Broly cleaved through it with a full-force charge, catching Frieza off-guard from behind at the other side. The evil emperor nearly fell to the ground from the sneaky charge, but he flared up his purple aura yet again and blasted off into the distance. Broly continued to chase after him until he came out of the mountain range, now in a plain rocky area with blue grass and some hills. He glided a little more, only to come to a complete halt in mid-air upon realizing Frieza was nowhere to be found.

Before he could turn to look behind himself, however, he felt a numb sensation go through his entire body. He then noticed his vision had become totally yellow, and that he couldn't move at all. Through the translucent yellow field, he could see that Frieza had trapped him in a golden ball of Ki. The emperor grinned before shooting the ball containing the confused Broly straight into a sloped pillar of rock. By the time he was released, the Saiyan was embedded deep into the stone to where his only glimpse at the outside world was through a small crack where a faint light shone into the newly-formed crevice. He prepared to fly back up when he heard a faint buzzing sound.

Broly just barely shifted his body to the side in time to dodge a curved Death Beam, cutting off the right shoulder guard of his armor. Another Death Beam sliced through the rock, this time just below Broly's legs. The Saiyan began to rise up through the stone while the two lasers curved back to home in on him. When he came out the other side of the pillar, he fired two neon green ki blasts, destroying the beams and leaving smoke in his face. This gave Frieza the perfect opportunity to strike, divekicking the back of Broly's head and launching him into the dirt. Frieza then tried to charge at him for another attack, but his opponent, remembering how he had been put into a similar situation against Paragus a few days earlier, quickly got up and repelled the tyrant with a shockwave of green energy. Frieza bounced back a few times before he paused to comment.

"It's just as I remember! The power gap between you and I is rapidly closing! But alas, you aren't quite at the level you were when you fought me on Earth."

Frieza lifted his arm above his head. A tall rock formation behind him was unrooted from the ground and began to slowly point towards Broly.

"No matter, I can fix that with ease! Come, show me the raging might of the Great Ape, or else the death of you and your cohorts is inevitable!"

With a forwards flick of his extended arm, the long, thick rock slowly began to crash towards Broly. He lifted his arms in front of him to block it, but before it made contact, it suddenly split into multiple smaller stones. The newly-created, sharpened projectiles were coated in purple Ki before they hurled themselves towards their target. Broly had to lumber and twist his body in all sorts of directions to dodge the barrage. Entire clusters of stones would occasionally barrel themselves at the Saiyan, and he would have to blast away these bigger attacks while still dodging the smaller shards. By the time the barrage had nearly concluded, Broly's armor was covered in scrapes, and he had cuts on his exposed face, arms and through his pants. He wanted so badly to take a moment to pant, but Frieza touched back down in front of him and elbowed him directly in the throat before he could react.

Broly stumbled backwards, gagging horribly while coughing up saliva and specs of blood on the grass ground now littered with rocks. Frieza charged at him in his exposed state once more. This time, he placed his outstretched palm directly in front of his opponent's face, firing a blast at point-blank range amidst the Saiyan's frightful wailing. By the time the smoke cleared, Broly was more tired and in pain than ever before; he shuddered in place, his arms hanging over.

"Oh well," Frieza said with a hint of disappointment, "I was hoping this would be a little more entertaining. I suppose we'll just put you on the ship and figure out a reliable way to draw your power out later."

He lifted up his tail, preparing to flog Broly with it. As he smacked it down however, the blow was stopped by Broly's hand. The Saiyan held onto the tail as he spun it around and threw Frieza backwards. The emperor was able to stop himself, his feet dragging across the ground and slowing him down. As he did this, he saw Broly lift himself up once more, this time immersed in a green aura and with golden irises.

"Much better! Let the 2nd round begin!" the tyrant said before his foe let out a blood-curdling, ape-like roar.

* * *

Cheelai could barely see what was going on around her. She was caught in the middle of the grueling conflict between the citizens of Rak and the Frieza Force. All around her, hooded aliens were dropping like flies as they charged straight against the pelt of blast fire from their enemy. Seeing as they had little combat training, the small army adopted a strategy of sheer guerilla warfare. To the highly trained soldiers' surprise, it was working. Kikono continued to stand back and smile, but beads of sweat were now mounting on his forehead; he knew that, should this wave of low-lives continue, their little battalion would ultimately get swallowed up; some soldiers were already being felled by distant blaster shots or sudden knife attacks. Not even the aerial bombardments had been able to break the legion of dregs' spirits; bombardments which were no longer possible due to running out of ammo.

"Kikono, look!" the elderly voice of Berriblu called as she pointed. Her yellow comrade looked up. At first, he couldn't see anything, but after squinting a bit he could see a green and purple aura clashing over the horizon.

"It seems Broly has unleashed his enraged state, hasn't he?"

"Indeed it does."

Just behind them, Cheelai and Leemo had caught sight of the clash as well. They could not dwell on it for too long, but they wished for victory before they resumed firing back at the soldiers and assisting their scoundrel allies.

"Be careful, Broly…" Cheelai and Leemo whispered in unison.

"Lord Frieza…" Kikono involuntarily uttered.

* * *

The two combatants crashed back to the ground before they charged at each other. Frieza tried to get in a lash of his tail, but Broly merely ignored the pitiful blow and launched a counter-attack. The alien emperor bent backward at a nearly 90 degree angle as he dodged Broly's storm of furious punches. In this pose, the Saiyan was able to land a kick to his back before he could get up, sending him flying into the air. He too launched up to follow up this assault, but before he could, Frieza teleported behind and backhanded him. The force of the blow completely caught Broly off-guard; none of his attacks had possessed this much power behind them up until now. And when he turned back to face his foe, he could see that the arm Frieza had used to smack him with was coated in a bright orange aura.

"No, not yet." he said as the aura faded away. He teleported once more, this time placing himself on top of one the small hills that had yet to be ravaged by their battle. He once again held his left arm above him, this time extending his index finger. From out of the finger came a black-and-red energy ball, crackling with electricity. The ball grew in size, eventually becoming bigger than its user's head. With a little more charging, Frieza tossed his Death Ball directly at Broly, who was still on the ground. The giant took the blast head on, at first appearing to succumb to it. However, he quickly wrapped his hands around the deadly sphere and held it tightly to his chest in a sort of hug. He then tossed the orb right back at Frieza with a firm sling of his left arm. The Arcosian dodged it, but didn't have time to react when Broly flew up at him and crashed his head directly into Frieza's stomach. A little trail of the alien's drool fell behind them as Broly rammed Frieza into another hill, severing the top of it. He came out towards its base and, with the evil emperor still stuck on his head, continued to bash into several more rock formations. Frieza finally slipped off, but before he could hit the ground, Broly grabbed him by his leg, dragged him in a 180 degree arc across the ground and tossed him up into the air. While he remained stunned in the sky, Broly fired a concentrated green ki shell out of his mouth towards his prey, which let off a giant green explosion that sent shockwaves and dust flying across the ground as it made contact.

Broly stared at the clump of smoke with his furious golden eyes and grunted at it. He then let out another primal roar while beating his chest as if he were the Great Ape his ancestors had marauded civilizations with, his stuck-up black hair being the only thing barely moving. The Saiyan had little time to celebrate his victory, for he was momentarily knocked off-balance by a sudden shockwave. Broly looked back up at where Frieza had been struck to see the smoke had been wiped away, revealing the menace slowly dropping back down the ground, his white and purple body covered in a golden aura. He didn't even speak; he appeared too angered to let the words out. He stretched his arms and let his body momentarily bulge and expand from his head down. When his skin creaked back into place, it was covered in a golden sheet. Eventually, the aura faded, and Frieza's entire body was covered in the gold plate. Aside from the exponential power increase, Broly felt a sense of deja vu. His desire to pulverize Frieza also grew slightly.

Broly rapidly stomped towards Golden Frieza with a loud battle cry. He jumped up slightly and swung a punch, which the Arcosian effortlessly dodged. Instead of turning around, Broly swung the same fist behind him for a backhand strike, but before it could make contact, Frieza wrapped his golden tail around it, using his own arm to knife-hand Broly in the back of his neck. While he was knocked off-balance, Frieza flew up high and fired a hail of tiny Ki spheres into the general area where Broly stood. At first, the little projectiles appeared to do no damage, but the ground where they struck began to shake, and before long Broly began wailing as the sections of earth where the balls had it erupted in geysers of magma and engulfed him.

Broly felt incredible discomfort, and his vision was consumed by the red haze of the magma. He tried to lumber his way out, but as he began to walk, something tripped him; more specifically, Frieza's tail. Before he could get another strike in, however, Broly was able to deliver a surprise elbow attack in the alien's gut. He was then able to turn towards his foe and, weathering the pain of the magma, bashed in Frieza's head multiple times until he was knocked down to the ground. By the time the blaze settled, leaving behind only small embers slowly withering away the aquamarine grass, Frieza was flat on the ground. This caused Broly to hesitate for a moment, wondering if he had actually killed the tyrant. This window was all the villain needed, for he was able to trap Broly again in yet another yellow Ki ball. This time he threw the ball diagonally upward and, before it could hit a rock, kicked it back even higher into the air, where it exploded after a few seconds. As Broly began to drop down, Frieza teleported above him, wrapped his tail around his neck one more time and wildly flipped around, holding onto the Saiyan while rocketing to the ground, ultimately smashing Broly's head into the pavement and causing him to cough up more blood and wail even more.

Broly rolled over on his back, struggling to maintain his enraged state. While he succeeded in doing so by a slim margin, he could not recuperate before Frieza clamped his foot over his mouth, pinning him to the ground at the foot of one of the hills. He started wildly firing Ki Blasts and delivered even more muffled screams, but this outburst did little to upset Frieza's firm hold, who outright ignored him as he began to speak again.

"You know Broly, I'm truly thankful we have had this opportunity to battle again, for it has given me some needed insight. When I watched you on Earth, I assumed that your Super Saiyan transformation marked the point you no longer had control over yourself. Now I know that no matter what state you're in, you're always an irritable, angry child. I suppose it is to be expected considering your upbringing, but nonetheless I am a ruler, and I simply don't have the time of day to babysit you whenever you go on one of your tantrums. Besides, I have enough monkeys to deal with, and I can't risk you running off to tame your power and come back to bite me later."

"Oh, who am I kidding, you're probably too far gone to comprehend what I'm telling you! Such a shame, too: you could've helped my army expand across the multiverse. But I suppose that I must cast aside those selfish dreams and bid you farewell."

With his final words spoken, Frieza began to charge a decisive killing blast with the very same foot he was holding Broly down with.

* * *

The flow of time around him had slowed to a miniscule fraction of its normal speed. Broly was caught in a stew of unpleasant emotions; fear of being killed, confusion and anger at how he had gotten to this point, all mixed in with the burning sensation that was consuming his mouth. At the same time, he lacked the state of mind to think one more somewhat pleasant thought to close his tumultuous life. One image did pop into his mind, however: the detailed image of the corpse of Saffron. At first, Broly could not understand why this image was in his mind: Was it a reminder of what was about to happen to him? But no, there was something else: The hole in his head. In his short time out and about the universe, he had never seen any other sort of blast aside from a blaster shot produce a wound so small with such a chilling lack of any blood. None of his standard Ki blasts could leave a mark so precise, yet so deadly.

The only person who he had seen produce a blast of that sort was Frieza. And the only other person he had seen die to a wound like that was…

* * *

Cheelai and Leemo's guerilla force was at the cusp of victory. Kikono's little army had been reduced to its very last line of defense: the remaining soldiers were exhausted, now shooting wildly. They had been doing so for a while, creating a vicious circle where they became more weary and overwhelmed.

The entire battlefield was shook by a sudden tremor. The ground began to crack and shift slightly, while any fires on any of the buildings were put out by the sheer amount of motion. A frightening roar was heard all the way from beyond the mountains before the arena and its combatants were basked in a green light. All of them stopped to gawk at the source. Cheelai herself audibly gasped upon seeing the massive green pillar of energy that emerged from the outskirts of Rak and high into its atmosphere.

* * *

Frieza had been knocked back by the immense burst of energy. He took a moment to reel from it. In spite of fully remembering what had happened last time, he showed little fear towards the emerging silhouette or the wild ki blasts emerging from the pillar of light, cutting off the tops of mountains and leaving vast craters in the vast battlefield around them. His contingency plan for this scenario was simple: Thanks to some recent endurance training he had partaken in, he hoped to endure the Saiyan's rage for as long as he could until he was sufficiently drained of his energy, at which point Frieza would finish him off for good. The tyrant braced himself as Broly began to walk out of the steadily fading neon green beam he had been encased in, revealing the hollow, white eyes and golden hair of his Super Saiyan transformation. Every footstep he took towards Frieza left sharp cracks in the earth they crashed down upon. His lumbering walk turned into a mad sprint, and then a rapid flight towards the one who had wronged him.

The evil emperor's endurance training couldn't have possibly prepared him for the punch he received straight in his cheek. The brutal blow immediately filled him with an unbearable pain that outmatched anything Broly had mustered against him in their first encounter. Before he could even cringe or scream from the attack, Broly punched him again with his free arm, this time straight in his stomach. This time, Frieza could not hold in a pained scream, involuntarily coughing up saliva that nearly landed on Broly's face, only to evaporate upon touching his emerald aura. This served as another pint of fuel to the fire of the Saiyan's rage, for he grabbed Frieza by his tail and began dragging him across the ground, jogging as he did so. Frieza's lustrous golden body was tainted by newfound scrapes and dirt from his punishment as helplessly trailed behind his foe, with his attempts at being released from the iron grip being futile. Meanwhile, Broly launched more green Ki balls, but instead of exploding against the ground, they hovered slightly above it. Broly deliberately dragged Frieza into these landmines, which exploded upon making contact with him, adding further to his great pain. Instead of smashing him into a wall after this, however, Broly tossed Golden Frieza into the air. When he came back down, he grabbed him yet again, lifted his knee up and began to bash Frieza over and over against it, intentionally making sure it struck his back. The emperor's desperate yells became more high-pitched and hysterical, feeling as if his spine would shatter at any moment. He eventually realized Broly had not restrained his arms and attempted to take advantage of this by firing a Death Beam straight at his head upon being dragged down for another knee attack. This got Broly to flinch, giving a window for Frieza to flip out of his grasp and make some distance between them. When he looked back, the only sign of any damage on the Saiyan's body was a little trickle of blood where the Death Beam had struck, which he hyped off as if he were nothing. To make matters worse, the once vibrant orange aura that had surrounded Frieza earlier was gone, and upon looking down at his bloodied hands, he saw the golden coat was fading in and out, steadily taking more effort to maintain.

"How?! How did you get this much of a boost compared to before without any training?!"

Frieza had intended this as a rhetorical question; he expected Broly to have regressed too far mentally to provide an answer. He was actually a bit startled when he spoke for the first time.

"On Earth, I didn't know who to direct my rage towards; I was more angry at myself than anyone else. Now, I know exactly who I must slaughter first."

"Lord Frieza," Broly said with an unnerving grin, "you were the one who killed my father, and for that I will make sure your punishment is slow and satisfying."

Broly's victim was sputtering, trying to get words out and failing. _I have never seen him show this tier of bloodlust… _he thought to himself, knowing that his next action could be the difference between life and death. Grunting and shaking as he tapped into his deepest Ki reserves, he flared his Golden form back to near its full capacity with an accompanying aura and began to charge a medium-sized golden energy ball between the palms of his hands. Broly was not pleased, and once again began to charge at Frieza. Right as he lunged at him preparing for a punch, Frieza rapidly clapped either side of the ball, popping it. The ensuing burst of light caused Broly to fall to the ground, screaming in anger while covering his burning, momentarily-blinded eyes with his hands. Long before he could recover, Frieza had already hastily teleported out of sight.

* * *

The battle at the square had come to a total standstill. Every one of the former combatants were now standing side by side, having observed and felt Broly's rage despite being unable to see it. Cheelai, Leemo and Kikono in particular were concerned with the duel's outcome, albeit for different reasons. Just then, out of nowhere, Frieza phased into existence by Berriblu's side, directly in front of the ramp of their flagship. The momentary fear at his presence shifted into concern and confusion upon seeing the emperor's miserable state: He had long since faded out of his Golden form, being unable to spare the energy to maintain it, and the injuries bleeding purple were littered across his current body. While the tyrant leaned on his assistant's shoulder for support, he yanked her scouter off her face, clicked a few buttons and began barking an order into it.

"Attention, this is Lord Frieza speaking! All ships are to evacuate effective IMMEDIATELY! Do not ask any questions, just go!"

With one final glare at the crowd of thugs, Frieza piled back into his flagship along with Kikono and Berriblu. The door hatched shut as the vessel began to glide off the ground and into the night sky. A few of the smaller ships had already blasted out of the atmosphere, and it seemed as if the flagship Frieza was housed in was about to do so as well.

In the blink of an eye, a thin green energy beam flew through the air. A horrible metallic screech echoed throughout the sky as the projectile pierced directly through Frieza's flagship, the sheer force of it shattering almost all of its bulbous yellow windows. The ship careened back down to the ground, belching smoke and scattering flaming shrapnel down below where it fell. The other men, women and children with them were terrified and confused, but Cheelai and Leemo understood. Their concerns were validated when they saw a familiar figure with golden hair, white armor and a green pelt wrapped around his waist slowly drop from out of the sky and touch down towards the crash site.

* * *

Frieza's vision was blurry. He struggled to stay conscious as he rose up and slowly navigated his way through the mess of burning, shredded metal. The ship had been divided into two pieces by a flaming hole that ran from its front to its back. Most all the men on board had been killed; some had been disintegrated while others died from the crash, their faces and armor showing the marks of blunt force and cuts from flying shards of glass. Strangely enough, Kikono was one of the lucky survivors; he was attempted to resuscitate an unconscious Berriblu while the one living physician and several soldiers stood guard. Frieza struggled to contemplate the emotions he was feeling at that moment. He had scarcely seen so gruesome a sight since his first empire; although, in those days, nobody had the gall to attack him or his prized vessel. For a faint few moments, he wondered if this just some terribly vivid dream. But as the ringing in his ears faded and he slowly became more aware of his surroundings, a deep, angry shout from outside the wreckage slapped him back down to reality.

"I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE, FRIEZA! COME OUT AND FACE ME BEFORE I OBLITERATE WHAT REMAINS OF YOUR WORTHLESS TOY SHIP!"

All the other men on board would've jumped if they weren't so physically drained. Meanwhile, their leader gestured to them to stay in the ship. He lumbered outside, and with some difficulty, lifted up his body to face the monstrous Broly; the monster he had played no small part in awakening.

"Listen, Broly…"

"You think I'll listen to you after what you did to my father? After killing him and resurrecting him as your slave?!"

Frieza was now evidently confused. The people inside the wreckage who heard what Broly said were equally mystified.

"Look, look, I'll admit it, I assassinated Paragus so you would get angry and become a Super Saiyan, I admit it! But I have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to the reincarnation part. I didn't use the Dragon Balls, nor did I use some sort of magic or technology to bring him back, I am honest!"

"LIAR!" Broly exclaimed as he once again began to stalk towards Frieza, proving his explanation fruitless. But suddenly, Frieza phased from a forlorn posture of defeat to a crouched stance, his newly fired-up purple aura and gritted glare indicating rage.

"NO!" he shouted at his approaching doom while raising his arm. "I will not die to you! I will not die to a mentally-impaired child! I will not die to an unreasonable monstrosity such as yourself! I WILL NOT DIE AGAIN TO ANOTHER SUPER SAIYAN!" Following this speech, a swirling pink disc materialized from his raised arm, which he tossed directly at Broly's head with a triumphant shriek. The Saiyan stared at the attack head-on before lifting his jaw open. Just before Frieza's Death Saucer could hit him, he bit down on it, causing the disc to split into pieces before dissipating.

* * *

Frieza was now totally defeated. He collapsed on his knees, exhausted and with zero energy left. Broly grinned in satisfaction at how he had broken the emperor before he began to charge a finishing green Ki blast in his arm. All his target could do was stare at the ground and silently hope that Goku would be stupid enough to revive him again. After a few seconds elapsed, however, Frieza still didn't feel anything. The ground hadn't changed to the yellow grass of his former prison in Hell. Broly appeared to be relenting, but for what reason?

He then looked up, and saw there was another shadow being cast over him, one much slimmer and smaller than Broly's. The feminine figure was none other than that of Cheelai, spreading her arms out in a feeble attempt to block her ally from doing further harm.

"Stop it, Broly." she said in a firm, totally unphased tone that stunned even Frieza for its bravery.

"And why should I?" the yellow fiend replied. "Frieza is nothing more than garbage that has yet to be disposed of. I thought my 'friend' would know better than to protect garbage."

"I am not your friend. I am friends with Broly, and you are not my Broly. The Broly I know would never call anyone garbage, nor would he smile at people suffering."

"And what of it? Once Frieza and his band of low-lives die, all of this is over, and I'll call down. If you want the Broly you know back, step aside and let me do what needs to be done. Even if you buy enough time for those rodents to escape, I'll just hunt them down anyway."

"Sure, murder Frieza in cold blood. And then what? Instead of the entire universe fearing him, they'll fear you! Look around you, Broly. There are people in that burning husk you just shot down who had nothing to do with any of this. Some of them may have have never wanted to join Frieza's army; they just wanted to support themselves, or even their families. I know because I was one of them. And yet, because of your rampage, most of them are now dead. Is this what you want to happen, Broly? Do you want to put revenge before the lives of people, even though you're capable of doing so much better? Do you want to be like Paragus?!"

Under normal circumstances, the woman's slight against his father would've gotten Broly even more riled up. But something about her sincere tone got to him, and now he was more hesitant about killing Frieza. With his temper slightly dampened, he could now sense something else directly behind him. He slowly turned, only to be startled by a large crowd of aliens behind him. All the creatures were staring right back at him, with hollow, frightened expressions. Among the crowd was another familiar face besides Leemo, who was tucked in between two burlier aliens, calling out to Cheelai. Broly was in fact able to see the pink alien and its child from yesterday. The little one was looking back at Broly with a curious look in its round eyes. He seemed as if he was about to walk towards him, but its parent stopped it, holding up its gun to Broly as it did so. This little scene dug even further into the Saiyan's heart as the meaning of Cheelai's words hung over him like a weighted cloth. All around him, people saw Broly's haunting white eyes have their color return to them, and his hair slowly draped downwards as its golden tint slowly faded away. Leemo finally muscled his way through the crowd and ran up to his tired friend, holding him along with Cheelai as he took a moment to recover. The trio was so caught up in their little moment of newfound joy that they didn't even notice a smaller Frieza Force cruiser return to the scene to pick up Frieza and the other surviving soldiers that had once piloted his prized flagship. As the tyrant boarded the vessel, he casted one final glare at the rejoicing trio. He contemplated mustering one final Death Beam and shooting it through Broly's skull, but he didn't have enough Ki left to even do that, and overall he figured that it would be better to take advantage of this moment of peace himself and scurry off to fight another day.

And that is exactly what Frieza did. By the time Broly, Cheelai and Leemo all got up, he was gone. However, he had left behind the wreckage of his flagship, and now that the living had departed and the embers had settled, they could now get a full glimpse at the mutilated corpses laying amongst the wreckage. This sight combined with the fresh memory of Cheelai's earlier speech caused Broly to tear up. He continued to cry all the way during their walk to their ship; a walk which the three mostly took alone along the unnaturally deserted streets of Rak.


	7. Valiant Dreams

"7 hours."

"Really? I thought a wormhole would be a little faster than that."

"Hey," Leemo replied to Cheelai while consulting a wrinkled, dusty piece of paper strapped to their spaceship's window littered with formulas and diagrams, "if these are anything to go by, we would spend months trying to get to Universe 6 without it. Relatively speaking, it's lightning fast."

Cheelai accepted this consolation at face value, but she couldn't quite bring herself to lie back and wait out the trip. Since there was no longer anything interesting to talk about as the galaxy-like innards of the portal swirled around their ship denoting their travelling through it, she was forced to deal with the proverbial elephant in the room, for even through the layers of steel walls that separated their cockpit from the rooms tucked in the back of the ship, they could still hear their friend Broly's muffled cries of sorrow. Leemo noticed it too, and seeing as this section of their trip was mostly hands-off, he attempted to ask more of his comrade.

"You should try talking to him, he's not in good shape."

"No good, I already tried that before we left Rak. It was a short conversation; he's just unreachable right now."

"Did you learn anything of note?"

"Well… ...there was one thing."

"And that is?"

"Near the end, I tried to console him by telling him it wasn't his fault, that he couldn't control himself. This made him even angrier: He told me that unlike before, he could remember every moment of when he went Super Saiyan. What's worse is that, according to him, he was in control: It's his mindset that turned barbarous, not all of his brain, and he feels horrible for it."

Leemo stopped to contemplate what had been said. He then gave Cheelai the best piece of advice he could in this unfortunate situation.

"The best thing you can do right now is to leave him alone. You've done what you can, but now Broly needs some time to think for himself."

Seeing as she had no better ideas, Cheelai took this advice to heart.

The next hour or so was grueling. With the incredibly limited entertainment on board, Leemo and Cheelai found themselves doing whatever they could to to weather Broly's crying fit. Cheelai in particular tried moving around to different rooms, humming to her herself or taking a nap, but her ally's cries reverberated and wore her down no matter where she went or what she did. This annoyance was compounded by the feeling of guilt that came along with the annoyance at Broly during this very difficult time for him. Thankfully, shortly after the dawn of a new hour had come, the Saiyan's tantrum began to die down, ultimately fading away entirely. This was a result of his non-stop sorrowful moaning lending itself to exhaustion; by the time he did lie back down on his bed and closed his eyes to sleep, his pillow was moist from his tears, some of them still fresh. His only desire upon passing out was for his dreams to provide at least momentary refuge from his turmoil.

* * *

_Broly slowly lifted himself to consciousness. His first observation upon awakening was that he couldn't feel the soft mattress of his bed beneath, but rather the rippled, spiky touch of tall grass. Sure enough, he looked down to see his hands touching a sheet of the green turf, his fingertips already slightly dirty. He lifted himself up to see that the grass stretched out for miles, well beyond the light gray horizon dotted with fluffy pink clouds. There was no other sight on the broad, hilled plain except for a strange crowd of people gathered on a nearby hill. Broly inched ever closer to the gathering; as he did so, he was able to distinguish the crowd was composed of humanoid creatures of all different shapes, the ones with hair almost always having it jet black with accompanying eyes. While he couldn't tell for sure due their lack of a tail, Broly sensed their energy was that of Saiyans. Just then, he felt a tug at his waistcloth. He looked down to see a small Saiyan child looking back at him with a beady-eyed expression. Upon casting aside the child's species, this scene possessed uncanny similarity to how the pink alien child on Rak had behaved towards him. Taking great precaution as he did so, Broly slowly leaned down to gently pat the child on his head._

_Broly's mind could not have prepared him for what happened next. For as soon as his dusty fingers made contact with the little boy's forehead, he let out a shrill scream that forced the elder Saiyan to cover his ears. When he looked back, he was horrified to see that the child's skin had vanished, leaving only his monkey-like skeleton and faint traces of decomposed internal organs. Broly didn't even get a firm glance at this before the bones crumbled into dust and were blown away by a sudden gust of wind. Nonetheless, he was startled to where he stumbled back and accidentally bumped into another Saiyan, this one an older woman. Before he could apologize, the woman herself let out a scream, and she too rapidly faded away organ by organ, skin cell by skin cell, bone by bone. Broly was now panicking. Unable to think straight, he began to run right through the crowd of Saiyans. Every time he bumped past one or so much as scraped his body against theirs, they too would waste away in a similarly unnerving scene. Every yell, and eventually every little tap made Broly more and more anxious until he was eventually just screaming in terror, running faster and faster and killing more Saiyans with his touch of death. Despite his fear and rage, the crowd of his people only seemed to grow. In addition, the decomposed bone dust wasn't disappearing: it was now gathering up and the ground and flying all around Broly, to the point where it began to multiply and cloud the once beautiful sky. Finally, the dust storm totally consumed the frightened warrior, drowning out all his senses. His vision went gray, then a darker gray, then totally black._

_Finally, the heavy feeling of the marrow dust storm faded away. When Broly lifted himself back up, however, there was still nothing around except pure darkness. The anxious Saiyan at first appeared to be the only semblance of color in the endless black void, but as he looked around himself more, he noticed something off in the distance: It was faint and indescernible from where he stood, but he could detect a faint red glow emanating from the unknown object. Unlike earlier, Broly made no attempt to be slow and gentle, instead opting to blast towards the object, flying at top speed with the swish of his white aura being the only thing breaking the eerie silence. As he advanced towards it, however, the scenery around him changed. The black void slowly faded away, revealing a cloudy sky just barely illuminating a bunch of sharply sloped hills. And when he got as close as he was willing to go, Broly discovered the source of the ominous red light was not a singular object, but rather an entire city, most of its buildings partially destroyed and crackling with flames. _

_Broly dragged to a halt and stared head-on at the once-mighty metropolis wasting away. A series of neon green explosions from within the burning city shook the ground right as Broly touched down on it, shaking him up somewhat. When he took a closer, evidently distressed look at the ruin, he noticed something else. At first, it was merely one creature; then two, then five, then ten, then twenty. Before he knew it, Broly could see an entire army of aliens, marching towards him in perfect formation, the heavy, synchronized clangs of their feet shaking and cracking the ground they touched. The armada had few unifying qualities: They all had an assortment of skin colors, facial structures, limb counts and other anatomical oddities specific to each of their species. Their clothing, assuming they wore any, varied radically in terms of the locale or even the time period they could've emerged from: Some looked like fairly modern suits of armor, others were older garbs from empires long past, and yet others still were simplistic pieces of fur that defined the wearers specifically as amongst the most primordial ancestors of whatever race they belonged to. There were, however, two characteristics that each and every one of them shared. For starters, all of them showed extreme, unnatural-seeming muscle growth. But their most defining, unifying feature was their hollow white eyes, coupled by a sickly green aura. In addition, all of those with hair had it stuck right up and expanded with an accompanying light green tint._

_The little army finally stopped marching just a few feet away from Broly. They then began to spread apart into two halves, making way for one more figure in the middle of the now empty space between the two segments of the army. This person, evidently a woman, had bright green hair as well, with her red tank-top, skirt and golden boots being stretched by her veined, bulging muscles. Broly concentrated on the female warrior, her Ki the most oppressive of all in the little army, being faintly recognizable as that of another Saiyan. Suddenly, Broly felt an uncomfortable sensation flow throughout his body. When he looked down at himself, he saw that his muscles were involuntarily stretching and expanding to a similar size of that of the members of the militia. He could see the familiar green aura of his Super Saiyan state wrap around his arms. Even his eyesight improved to where he could now make out his reflection in the other Saiyan's white eyes: His hair too was thicker and bright green. But before he could contemplate what was going on, he began to feel an invisible force pulling him towards the woman. The force wrapped leaves and debris all around the arena, which only appeared as silhouettes against the backdrop of the flaming city. He tried to struggle against it, but the force just grew stronger and stronger. Finally, upon expanding his power to its absolute limit, he was able to just barely resist. He looked back at the woman with a grimace from the force tugging his skin, who merely gave a sly grin. The force then suddenly multiplied exponentially. Broly could not hope to adapt to the sudden boost, and felt himself being tossed through the air right at the Saiyan woman, who extended her arms as if to greet his head-on collision._

* * *

When he woke up from the nightmare, he didn't scream. He didn't run from his bed, nor did he make any sort of noise indicating distress. He was too frozen from fear to do so; all he could was blankly stare at the cold metal ceiling, the wormhole they were travelling through swirling outside his window and illuminating the small bedroom with a faint white glow. So he remained for a good while, thinking over the frighteningly vivid visions he had received. He then quietly lifted off the covers from his bed and walked out.

Cheelai was having a difficult time resting. Her eyes were closed, but she couldn't bring herself to fall into a deep sleep. She had remained in this vegetative state for nearly an hour with no results, and was growing grumpier by the minute. She was about to just give up and get up from bed when she felt something wrap around her waist. Rather than panicking, she looked at the muscular, bare arms that were now tightly hugging her. She then turned to look behind her, and there was Broly, having hopped into her bed, now drifting off to sleep. She gave a small smile and went back to sleep too.

* * *

_Planet Sadal_

Cabba's office was barely illuminated by the partially-risen, early-morning sun outside. The purple-robed trooper with a blue shirt and an extra layor of armor held by olive green straps had bags under his eyes as he robotically scribbled through the last bit of paperwork for the day. He had been told over and over that his recent promotion from Commander to General would be a grueling, sudden shift; Of course, the Saiyan's infectious optimism had clouded his judgement and ignored those warnings as he decided to officially rank up. While he still got to work in the field, the time to do so had been cut in half by an onslaught of office busywork, which could continue well into the night, as had happened in this case. Cabba signed the very last sheet in his incomplete papers stack and put it in the stack of complete papers that would be dragged off by an assistant later that morning. His first thought after finishing was to lean his head down to rest, but right as he did so, the ringtone of his computer's messaging system went off with uncanny timing. He lightly grabbed his mouse and opened the audio call, which strangely enough appeared to come from just outside Sadal City.

"Hello," he said with a little bit of a groan, "General Cabba here, what you need?"

"An unidentified ship has landed outside the city, sir." spoke a gruff male soldier's voice. "We asked its crew to come outside: Two of them have complied, but one of them refuses to leave their room and will not respond to any of the troopers trying to get them out."

This interesting information relieved a little bit of Cabba's exhaustion, particularly the part about the one who wouldn't leave the ship.

"I'll be on my way." he said before closing the call and running down the halls of the Royal Palace.

Cabba came to the scene with a few reinforcements. Already there was a crowd of people, Saiyans and other species alike hustling around the scene of the unfamiliar, pod-shaped vessel, murmuring and trying to snap pictures. Cabba also caught sight of two of the three travellers: they were rather small aliens, one green and feminine and the other orange with a bright yellow beanie. The few civilians who tried to approach them had their efforts thwarted by a blockade of Saiyan soldiers in similar attire to Cabba aside from the brown and red robes denoted their comparatively lower ranks. All of them temporarily stopped their duties to give a salute to the newly proclaimed General Cabba as he touched down in front of the strangers, assigning the extra men that had come with him to help to blockade them against the thickening crowd. Cabba asked for the two strangers' names: Cheelai and Leemo, they called themselves.

"I heard there's a third person who arrived with you. Can you explain why they aren't coming out of your ship?"

"Their name's Broly." the green woman Cheelai said nervously. "It's a long story, but they're really don't like being around large groups of people. Recent events have… ...compounded those fears, to say the least."

Cabba nodded and made his way up the ramp leading inside. Upon entering, he saw a couple of burly troopers prodding at one of the doors in the spherical main room, barking at whoever was inside to step out.

"Step aside!" the soldiers jumped as their General walked between them. With some effort, he was able to pray the door open and shut it behind him. He looked towards the singular green-sheet bed only to find someone who totally defied his expectations. He was expecting someone fairly weak, perhaps even sickly, but the massive man with scars upon his body hiding under the bedsheets with only the upper regions of his chest and above just barely poking out looked as if he had seen wars. Cabba had to restrain a chuckle as he pulled out a little stool and sat at the bedside. He then addressed the man with as gentle a tone of voice he could muster, looking the frightful stranger straight in his eyes.

"Hey there Broly! My name's Cabba, it's a pleasure to meet you."

He reached a hand out for a shake. Broly did not respond.

"You look kinda familiar. You're way too muscular to be a human, that's for sure. You a Saiyan by any chance?"

This time, Broly did respond with a little nod. Cabba was curious; he had been told previously Goku and Vegeta were the last pure Saiyans left in Universe 7. He would have to ask about that discrepancy later.

"So, what's up? Your friends have come out, why aren't you joining them?"

Broly looked out the window. Upon seeing the crowd wrap around the ship's sides, he rocked his head back away. "So many people…"

"Ah, shy, aren't you? I figured as much." Cabba already knew this, but he figured he would feign ignorance to get ease the man to his presence.

"Well, it's not just that…"

"Hm?"

"I'm very prone to anger, Mr. Cabba. And when I get angry, I hurt people. I don't like hurting people, I really don't. But when I am enraged enough, I get consumed by forces outside of my control; I transform and become a different person, I become a monstrosity, I-"

"Ok, ok, I get it!" Cabba said while waving his arms. The ominous speech had worried him a bit, but he was not willing to give up.

"If you're ever enraged, we'll stop you, OK?"

"But you can't. I can become a Super Saiyan, you know."

"Don't worry, we can become Super Saiyans, too!"

"It doesn't matter. My form is stronger than normal; I don't even need it to combat God-tier fighters. When I am angry, my latent power grows and grows, and it quickly explodes and I lose control. Part of the reason why I'm here is to try and tame it, but I'm still scared that something will happen and people will die before I fully control myself."

"Look outside again, Broly."

Broly did as he was asked, looking at the eager crowd once again.

"None of them are gonna anger or hurt you or your friends." Cabba said. Broly still didn't seem convinced.

Cabba then held on to his hand with a reassuring smile. "You're not gonna control your power if you can't get out and about first."

With some difficulty, the pair steadily walked through the ship. Broly remained a bit jittery as he walked.

"So, how do you want to get this done?" Cabba said.

"I want to meet the one you call 'Kale'."

"Oh! You know her? Of course I can get you to meet her! Just follow me!"

And so Broly did so as he walked outside with the Saiyan General. Cheelai and Leemo joined right by his side as they walked through the crowd of soldiers and citizens and out towards Sadal City.

* * *

_Unknown Planet_

The biggest circular chamber of Mamba's lair, buried underground and lit by an array of glowing cyan gemstones, was mostly empty with the exception of the witch herself, looking at her crystal ball in glee. She had been almost entirely transfixed on it the past few days, watching Broly's journey to Sadal take its course. With her lengthy mission done, she was prepared to go off to meet with her treasured accomplice when she heard the lofty footsteps of metal boots behind her. She began to address the new person in her lair before she even turned around completely to face him.

"Oh sweetie, what great timing!" she began to say to her serpentine son Derma. "I had just finished monitoring Broly. He's already reached Sadal, and is on his way to meet Kale!"

Derma passed right by her and looked into her ball. A fast-forwarded version of all the events from Broly's departure from Vampa to his arrival on the Saiyan planet quickly replayed themselves before him.

"Well done, mother." Derma spoke in his deep voice. "I never had any doubt you would be able to lure him over there. And yet it seems you couldn't kill off his little friends..."

"I'm sorry about that, my bumpkin!" Mamba replied. "They intervened before Paragus could take him away from them."

"Eh, no matter." Derma said. "They are of little consequence to us anyway. We'll do away with them when the time comes."

There was a brief moment of dead air between the two. Derma took this opportunity to look at the wall behind Mamba's crystal ball. On this wall was a mural, embedded into the bedrock with a mismatching orange background as if it had been taken and put in there from an entirely different planet. The mural itself contained a single illustration, showing what appeared to be a group of aliens building a pyramid together with what appeared to be Kaioshins and Angels, working together as if they were equals.

"Sweetie?" Mamba asked, looking at the elegant, ancient illustration with her progeny.

"Yes?"

"This may seem like a ridiculous question at this stage, but are you absolutely certain you want to continue with this? If your plan fails, who knows what will happen to you."

"There is no doubt in my mind as to what I must do." Derma replied. "Zalama himself made those Prophecies, and every one of them has come true. Regardless of how much the arrogant worms occupying the highest echelons of each Universe's hierarchy will try to deny and avoid it, their days as leaders are numbered, and the new world of mortals and gods will sweep them up and drown out their voices."

"In that case, I assume we can move on to Phase 2?"

"Indeed we shall."

"And what of Broly and Kale? I can't surveil them while we're out getting the things we need."

"Leave them be. Let them train together, get to know each other. It'll make their awakening that much easier if they trust each other and their power."

"I see."

Mamba walked up to the little table her crystal ball was seated on, grabbed it and tapped it. A map of the entirety of Universe 6 appeared across the sphere's glass surface. Mamba scrolled through the map of the stars and planets as if it were a globe until she found their destination. Derma held her hand as she double-tapped the planet she had marked for this phase of the plan. Within seconds, the two had vanished from sight, leaving their lair vacant.


	8. Two Titans

With the guidance of the friendly General Cabba, Broly and his little companions were led from the outskirts into the heart of Sadal City. To the pleasant surprise of Cheelai, it seemed as if Broly's social anxiety had temporarily subsided; he paid no visible heed to the curious looks of passerby along the sidewalk and in the busy streets, who took merely quick glances at his bulky figure or his eccentric waist-cloth before returning to their daily activities, if they did even that. Instead, the innocent Saiyan's mind was pre-occupied by the unfamiliar landscape of the metropolis. As the group trailed behind their leader Cabba, Broly would take frequent breaks to take in the scenery. He had zero frame of reference for the metal spires that towered over them, nor the hovering vehicles that were combing the sky in linear formations save for some extremely vague memories of King Vegeta's domain, warped by the decades that had passed since then. Even then, his royal palace couldn't have held a candle to the height of some of the office and commerical buildings whose exteriors were dotted with balconies and assortments of glass windows, nor did the plain white, cramped space pods compare to the hustling and bustling, multi-colored cars filled with all manner of people, Saiyan and non-Saiyan alike. Broly soon had the honor of being inside one of these vehicles, for after their walk had concluded, Cabba gestured him, Cheelai and Leemo to enter a bright yellow vehicle hovering just above the ground, a sign saying "TAXI" fastened at the top of its hood. Cabba took the seat right next to the gruff-looking, uniformed driver while the tourists he was guiding crammed themselves into the back. Broly took a window seat, peeking his head out of the window like a dog, watching the cars pass by as the hovering Taxi moved along to its destination. At one point they were stopped by a strange device that glowed various colors, with the red color making their car stop. Cheelai told Broly this machine was a "traffic light", but before she could elaborate, he heard a series of snickers from right beside their car. He swung his head to the side to see a bunch of aliens sitting in a long, luxurious red vehicle piloted by a Saiyan woman with long, red-dyed hair. They turned away from him before they began to whisper amongst themselves. Broly couldn't understand the language they were using to communicate with each other, but the driver of the taxi must have, for he rolled down his window and yelled at the delinquents to cut it out. Before any sort of escalation could occur, the traffic light turned green and the group sped off laughing. Their driver merely groaned before he let the car go forward too. Broly's mood was dampened despite not knowing what they had said, and he spent the rest of the ride in silence.

The strangers finally reached their destination. Cabba helped Broly and his friends out of the vehicle for them to be greeted by Sadal's spaceport. Cabba explained that he would help the aliens get some kind of housing as illegal immigrants: In typical fashion, most of his jargon flew over Broly's head, and it was up to Cheelai to explain the basics of the immigration process as Cabba guided them inside the crowded spaceport with billboards with unfamiliar logos and products strategically placed all over the establishment. Just then, however, a tremor ran through the building with an accompanying muffled boom. Most everyone inside began scanning the area only for their heads to turn towards the massive window at the front. Broly, Cheelai, Leemo and Cabba looked out too to see smoke rising from a nearby building. Cabba called down a few soldiers while he, the strangers and a few brave civilians stepped outside for a better look. The building itself was a modestly sized, brick-laden bank, the smoke rising from a gaping, flaming hole that had just been blown into the building's second floor. A few men in masks jumped and floated down from the hole down to the ground, each of them wielding either well-worn blasters or comically large bags of money. They piled into a large white van that had assumably been parked just minutes earlier since Broly's friends hadn't caught it, their bags being hastily thrown into the back. But right away something seemed strange. Despite not being able to see the men's facial expressions, Broly could sense that their movements were hasty in a panicky, worried way. In addition, the party also noticed the strange lack of concern in the faces of those inside and outside the spaceport, including Cabba, even as the criminals' vehicle began speeding towards them.

"Hey. Dude." Cheelai said to Cabba in a sarcastic tone while slightly elbowing him. "You're a general of the army, right? As in, you're supposed to be protecting the public from danger? Because if you haven't noticed, there's a bunch of masked men armed to the teeth and heading right towards us!"

"Oh, I know." the Saiyan General replied. "But I don't need to do anything. Help is already on the way."

"What the hell are you-"

Before Cheelai could even finish her sentence, a green flash of aura dropped down from the sky and touched down, leaving a small crater in the street where it came down and forcing the robbers to slam the brakes on their vehicle. As they came to a halt, the violent light subsided somewhat, giving a clear view at the one casting it. The woman that had taken the center of attention wore a bright blue, somewhat wrinkled shirt with a coat of arms resembling a lion on the back of it with accompanying dark blue pants, the golden badge buttoned on the front of her shirt reflecting and amplifying the light of her own Ki. But perhaps most striking of all about her besides her well-toned, muscular figure was her thick, bright green hair, which stood up and blew slightly to the side from the slight morning breeze.

"Where you guys off to?" Kale asked. The robbers were trembling, some of them already having jumped out of the vehicles in shcok. Meanwhile, the people looking on were cheering on their green-haired hero, with Broly showing similar infatuation and interest. Before the robbers could formulate an alibi, Kale teleported to the back of the van. She carefully, but loudly ripped off the metal back door from its hinges, ran inside and came back out with several bags of money slumped over her shoulder. The outlaws made no attempt to resist, simply kneeling and stretching their arms, allowing Kale to slip some handcuffs on them from out of her back pocket.

Cheelai was fairly impressed. "That's definitely Kale, alright. You didn't tell me she was a police officer!"

"Yeah," Cabba replied, "we actually recruited her for the military, but she decided she wasn't quite cut out for it after a recent mission we had. We'll definitely have to tell you about that one some time. Anyways, let's get down to business..."

"Hey, Kale!" Cabba said, waving the Saiyan girl's gaze over to him and the strange new people accompanying him. "There's someone who wants to see you!"

* * *

That noon was particularly crowded for the Greenhouse Eatery. Regarded as one of the most lucrative restaurants in Sadal City, its wooden interior and glass roof contained a variety of scents from their kitchen and from the tables at which all sorts of people sat at, looking through their menus and chowing down on their food and drink. Cabba, Kale, Broly, Cheelai and Leemo were all seated on the second floor at one of the blue-clothed VIP tables, a distinction which was easy to attain thanks to the two Universe 6 Saiyans' positions of prestige in their society. By this point, Kale had powered down to her slimmer base form with a black ponytail, leaving her as the amongst the shorter ones at the table in bit of an ironic twist. As they awaited to be served, she began the conversation with Broly, who sat immediately to the left of her, towering over her.

"So, you wanted me to train you, yes?"

"Yes." Broly replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Wha-what? Why? There's better people for you to train with. Haven't you tried doing it with Goku?"

"Kakarot can't really train me all that well. You see..."

Broly then briefly explained the story of his uncontrollable power and his unique Super Saiyan form.

"You can do that too? And you want me to teach you how to control it?"

Broly nodded.

"I mean, I could try, but I'm not really much of a teacher. To be honest, I'm not really sure how I controlled that power myself, and your case sounds especially bad. We could try training outside the city, but it's still not ideal. I'm really sorry, but if Goku gave up on training you, I doubt I could do anything."

Broly sighed heavily and looked back down at his still empty plate. Just then, another familiar voice interjected.

"Sorry ma'am, but I'm not buying that excuse." Cheelai asserted, now lifted up slightly with her hands on the table. "We didn't nearly get ourselves killed on some insane intergalactic quest just for our best friend to be ignored like that."

"Again, I'm sorry! I didn't see any of this coming, this was all just lopped on me."

"He's right, Cheelai." Leemo said with a hand on her shoulder. She sat back down with a grumpy expression.

Their meals were eventually served to them. Kale and Broly chomped down on large steaks noisily while Cheelai and Leemo had some drinks. Cabba quietly ate some salad.

"Y'know," Kale chimed in after finishing up her meal, "there is one thing we can try…"

* * *

An hour passed with the group back at the visitors' spaceship, just outside Sadal City in the middle of a grassy field. Leemo was inside getting things ready, and Cabba had already left off to tend to some work he had to do. This left Cheelai, Broly and Kale to talk amongst themselves outside the ship.

"So, you guys have Namekians in this Universe too?" Cheelai asked.

"Yup!" Kale replied. "I fought alongside one of them a while back. Well, they used to be two, but they had to fuse at one point to fight someone too strong for them. The remaining one's named Saonel. We haven't talked in a bit, but last time we met he said he was becoming a teacher."

"Ok, cool, but how is a Namekian gonna help Broly with his problem?" Leemo asked.

"Well, their warriors learn at energy control at an early age, and Saonel's by far the strongest of them. Besides, it's not like we got better options."

"Oh! I just remembered something. Be right back!"

Kale flared her aura and flew off into the distance, further away from the main city. Cheelai leaned on the side of the ship waiting for her while Broly paced back and forth. 10 minutes later, they were able to see Kale flying back towards them, now with someone else trailing behind her. The figure touched down, showing herself as a woman with long black hair, a pink top and baggy blue pants.

"Everyone, this is Caulifla! We're besties!" Kale exclaimed with a smile while holding the other woman's arm up high. The other merely gave a light smirk. She then walked up to Broly, looking up at the man who dwarfed her in size.

"Well well, you're a big guy, ain't you?" Caulifla said. "I have a feeling you're gonna be a bit harder to clobber than some others I've fought."

"Cut it out!" Cheelai told her. "Broly doesn't like to fight, and even if he did, you wouldn't hold a candle to him."

"And what about you, greenie? You look pretty wimpy to me."

"Now, I ain't no wimp! I would gladly die for my friends!"

"Yeah, sure, just be careful a slight gust of wind doesn't knock you over before that happens."

"Well, you're sure one for snide comments, aren't you? A head as hard as yours could probably take on a laser at poink-blank range."

There was dead air for a moment as the two women stared each other head-on with furious glances. Caulifla's face then turned into a smirk as she put her arm over Cheelai's shoulder and dragged her to her side.

"You're a pretty tough cookie for someone who looks like a B-movie background character. I honestly think we'll get along just fine."

Cheelai was just as confused as all the others, but she too smiled and returned a similar sentiment.

"I'm inclined to agree, you emaciated bimbo."

* * *

It was another busy day for Saonel. As the captain of the newly formed Namekian Martial Arts Academy, he had to take on many newfound responsibilities in addition to those of his brothers who had fused with him, including Pirina as of late. Already he was building a brand new arena that would be used for training and competition purposes. In spite of his natural strength, he had to take his work slowly and precisely as to not shatter any of the wooden planks that were to be used to form the stands. His work was rather quiet and especially lonely, seeing as the incomplete arena was being placed in the middle of the Namekian wilds, miles away from the closest village. This combined with the labor's monotony gave him brief moments where he could sense nearby creatures to practice focusing his energy sensing skills. Normally he would try to specifically target the smallest power levels of microscopic yet lightning-fast bugs or even plants, but in one instance as he attempted this training again he immediately felt a massive surge of energy, or rather multiple. As it inched closer, the brief air of tenseness dissipated, for he could distinguish one of the energy signatures as Kale's; already she felt stronger since the last time they had met. But there was something else there, too: Something unfamiliar. At the most superficial level, the energy felt similar to Kale's, but it was off: It felt uncontrolled, more wild and overbearing. This being eclipsed Garlic Jr., indeed, he hadn't felt anything quite at this level since his final minutes in the Tournament Power. Finally, looking up at the sky, he saw a pod-like spaceship floating above and towards the side of the arena. By squinting hard enough through its orange, orb-shaped windows, he could see Kale and Caulifla waving down at him. A large man in white armor was right behind her, waving to Saonel with a less broad smile and a more hesitant, shaky hand. The Namekian nodded back as he flew towards the landing sight.

Upon exiting the ship and touching down on Namek's soil, Kale and Caulifla introduced Broly and his friends from Universe 7 to Saonel and explained their purpose for having voyaged all the way to Universe 6.

"What I'm asking is, can you help me train Broly?" Kale finally asked to Saonel.

"Well," he began to say, "I do need some practice at being a good sensei. I suppose I could teach you both, yes. It'll be a good learning experience for me, too!"

"Count me in, too!" Caulifla said with her usual spunk. "I haven't given up on my dreams of Super Saiyan 3 quite yet! If that punk Goku ain't gonna come over and teach me it, I'll figure it out myself!"

With the Saiyans already eager for their training, this left Cheelai and Leemo as the odd men out.

"So, what are you guys gonna do?" Caulifla asked. "You're not fighting on our level anytime soon."

"Maybe we can't train to fight whatever comes next one-on-one," Leemo replied, "but I'm sure with some of the resources on this planet and with my own expertise we could manufacture some weapons that are more than capable of keeping up."

* * *

Broly and Kale were sat together across from each other in the center of the incomplete arena with Saonel watching over them from a few feet away. Both of them had changed their normal tops for blue vests resembling the one their Namekian teacher wore.

"So, what do you want us to do?" Kale asked their mentor for the day. In response, Saonel sat down with his legs crossed.

"Seeing as you and your partner have problems with anger, we shall begin with meditation."

Broly didn't really understand the significance of this exercise as Saonel showed him how to sit and stretch his arms properly to perform the meditation, nor did he understand when he copied the position and closed his eyes.

"Relax your breathing and your mind." he commanded in a softer voice. Kale gave it a go, slowing her breathing down and relaxing her entire body. She was doing ok, but something was preventing her from fully focusing. The distinct sound of rapid tapping was bothering her, and when she slightly winked her eye open, she saw Broly was tapping his leg against the pavement, otherwise maintaining the position correctly.

"You are too tense." Saonel told him, opening his eyes and getting Broly to stop. "Here, I will hold down your leg. Try again."

Broly and Kale meditated again, with the former having his leg pushed down to it wouldn't shake. Eventually, Saonel slowly lifted it back up, and it seemed like it was staying in place. Before long, however, Broly was shaking it again. Saonel remained patient, pushing the leg down over and over until the Saiyan got it right.

"Now that you are totally relaxed," Saonel continued, "I want both of you to transform into your lowest states while continuing your meditation."

Kale went first. Without opening her eyes or showing any signs of significant agitation, the air blew around and away from her for a brief moment before she transformed into a more normal Super Saiyan form, maintaining her lean figure but now with golden, spikier hair. The task had been simple for her, but for Broly it was a different story. Wind wildly whipped around him, and he squinted and grunted as he tried to power up. The familiar green aura began to hang around his body, and his hair stuck right up. His breathing became more labored, and his body shook as he tried to maintain his meditating position in spite of all the untameable energy surging through him. Finally, his hair fully stuck up and his eyes flapped open, revealing their now-golden hue. He was struggling a little bit as evidenced by his gritted teeth, but it seemed as if he had at least superficial control over his Great Ape strength. But before Saonel could congratulate him on his effort, Kale suddenly went wild. Her eyes turned gold too, and she emitted a loud scream as her power spiked. Saonel teleported behind her and restrained her as she wildly yelled and bit at the air like a deranged animal. Thankfully, this outburst was brief, for as quickly as she had entered this malicious state, she snapped out of it. While she crumbled on the ground panting and shuddering, Broly too powered down with a concerned look on his face.

"Wha-what just happened?" Kale asked, already seeming exasperated.

Saonel looked at her while still holding her, then back to Broly.

"That form you just used... That was a Great Ape-like form in your base state, correct?"

Broly nodded to him.

"It appeared as if when you transformed into that state, Kale transformed along with you."

"I thought that was impossible to do for Universe 6 Saiyans?" Broly asked.

"They weren't always like that. Many eons ago, they had tails and were able to become Great Apes just like the Universe 7 Saiyans were able to. They evolved past it after becoming a peaceful people, but it seems as if your form was able to re-awaken the strength of her ancestors within Kale."

"I used to think that I had some sort of understanding of her latent strength. Now I realize that we haven't even scratched the surface."


	9. Recipe for Disaster

_Planet Plantayne_

Plantayne was one of the more intriguing worlds of Universe 6. The surface of the world was barren of anything resembling civilization, instead being covered all around in luscious jungles, massive rivers, lakes and waterfalls and teeming with wildlife. What ruins could be excavated of buildings or towns were mostly ruined, covered by what seemed like thousands of years' worth of moss growth and erosion; and that assuming you could find them amongst the wildlife's multiple, thick layers of foliage. But this did not mean civilization was non-existent, far from it. In fact, these ruins were testaments to the people of Plantayne's incredible advancement, for they had realized long ago how sensitive the environment around them was and migrated to the skies as to prevent damage to it. In the planet's upper atmosphere were large colonies of floating glass domes with golden bases, mounted with engines on the bottom. Inside each of these domes were clusters of buildings public and private. The largest domes were located down south, where apartment buildings, proper households and workplaces were all situated and categorized: one dome had houses and places for industrial workers, others for the service workers, so on and so forth. As one moved north, the domes, while still very large, would grow smaller and smaller. Apartment complexes would give way for private neighborhoods for the wealthy, and the places where factories would be were instead taken up by corporate offices and government buildings. Inside one of these prestigious northern domes was a museum, more specifically the Royal Museum of the Divine. A banner was plastered to its dome's base, advertising it as "A Timeless Commemoration of the Relationship between Mortals and Gods". The buildings itself was a fine marble structure, with its entrance being at the very top of a flight of glistening white stairs as wide as they were tall.

But on this particular day, the stairs were almost totally empty. This was because it was a weekend on the Plantaynese calendar, and while they didn't normally close on weekends, they did take the end of each month to close down for repairs. The only people on those steps aside from workers occasionally coming out for lunch were the establishment's bodyguards. There were three of them, each wearing the same uniform consisting of a black robes with hoods, gray chest plates and white masks that covered their entire face, save for two hollow slits for the guards' eyes. The guard at the front of the group also had two protrusions coming from either side of his robe, and two at the top of it, evidently being the antennae and ears of a Namekian. There was also a bright red line running down his mask between the eyes, marking him as the commander of the trio.

Commander Petrum, much like his compatriots, was bored out of his mind. While he was able to keep himself composed as he stood with his pike in hand, that's all he was doing: standing. These days were always the dullest in his line of work, with not even any passerby to talk to. Naturally, it came to him as a surprise when via his receptive Namekian hearing he was able to take note of a tapping noise from the very bottom of the stairs. When he looked down, he saw a small creature with flowing white hair and a robe trying to walk up the steps with a cane. Almost as soon as it had appeared, it fell down and dropped its cane.

Petrum took a great leap down the stairs, landing in front of the old woman who was now feebly croaking for help. He lifted her up and fastened the thick wooden cane back into her. The little woman looked back up with her, her scaly face having a red gemstone lodged into her forehead and wearing a toothy grin.

"Why, thank you! You're such a nice young man, now aren't you?" she said in an overly enthusiastic tone of voice.

"Hehe, thanks." Petrum replied, a slight blush being hidden by his mask. "Anyways, what is your business here?"

"I was hoping I could enter the museum. There's something very important I have to do today."

"Well, I'm sorry ma'am, but the museum's closed for repairs today. You'll have to come back some other time."

"Are you sure about that? Maybe you could make a little exception for me? I promise I won't disturb anything. Besides, I'm quite good at baking, you know..." the mysterious woman teased.

Petrum now felt a little bad for having to reject her plea. She seemed like such an amicable, interesting character, and her presence alone had broken up the boring day. But nonetheless, he had a job to do and bills to pay.

"Sorry, no exceptions. If you want, I can help you on the way out."

The woman's peachy smile faded away as she leaned her head down and fell silent.

"Such a shame, such a shame, such a shame," she grumbled, "perhaps in another world we could've been friends. I suppose I will have to get you out of my way."

Before Petrum could question what she meant by that, Mamba jolted her neck back up and pointed her free hand at his face. She began to slowly back away, the gem on her forehead flickering a pink glow. Meanwhile, Petrum's subordinates, who were still at the top of the stairs, were looking down at the scene in confusion. Suddenly, they heard a horrific scream come from their leader.

"NO FATHER!" Petrum shouted, backing away from Mamba. "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME ANYMORE! I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!" And with that chilling, confusing quote, their fearless leader crumpled up against one of the marble railings and began to cry hysterically.

Mamba turned back to the two remaining troopers, her smile having had any facade at warmth in it ripped away in favor of a devilish grin. She began to hobble her way up the imposing steps with unusual vigor. The remaining troopers hadn't the damndest clue as to what they were facing, but they too prepared for a battle. But as they reached into the sheaths on their backs to draw out their own pikes, they felt something cold and metallic behind them.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen." came a new voice so close they could feel it breathe on their masks. Before they could respond, the masked men were lifted up into the air and turned around to see a tall, reptilian humanoid with a shining blue suit of armor, his metal-laden fingers wrapped around their throats and his slim amber eyes staring at them with unrestrained malice.

"Do not despair that your lives are being cut short," Derma exclaimed in his standard low-pitched hiss. "weaklings such as yourselves will be helpless when zero hour comes anyway. The only downside about this is that you won't get to see it."

The two men began to feel something hot below their heads. A few seconds after this sensation first appeared, two purple Ki knives jutted out from Derma's palms and through the mens' throats, killing them instantly. The crazed serpent let the blood flow through his fingers and down to the floor before he tossed them down the stairs, letting them fall down each step. He was careful to toss them away from his dear mother Mamba, who was still walking up the steps. Like Petrum had a minute ago, Derma leapt down to where his relative was, helping her walk up the stairs. When they reached the very top, Mamba briefly hovered up to kiss her son on the cheek for the act of kindness. Before they entered the museum, however, she turned back and looked down to see Petrum still in a vegetative state. Even from her distance she was able to lift the sullen Namekian up with her magic and toss him through the glass dome, shattering it as he was tossed through and fell to the earth below the floating domes. With the last threat at the moment disposed of, the two entered the museum, slamming the door shut behind them.

* * *

Derma and Mamba strolled through the Royal Museum. There was no evidence that they were in any rush or were worrying about anything. Instead, they behaved as if they were just another tourist, scanning the exhibits of the establishment. At one point in their walk, Derma stopped for a full minute to look at an ancient stone engraving of an Angel looking down upon an entire small army of Saiyan ancestors, so old as to still have their tails intact. As carefree as the pair seemed, however, they were on an important mission, they full details of which only they knew and had planned for a period of time they themselves were unsure of.

"Halt, intruder!"

The serpentine duo stopped to see a platoon of 5 guards blocking their way. The guards themselves were practically identical to the ones they had faced at the entrance, with what they assumed was their leader even having the same red line going down through his mask. Their physique was slightly different, with somewhat bulkier muscles and more spiny protrusions from their hoods.

"How did you get through the first line of guards?" the chieftain asked.

"I would love to bring them in to give you the full story," Derma replied calmly, "but two of them are mutilated and one is now likely a splatter on this planet's surface." As evidence to this claim, he opened and extended his gloved palms, the dried blood contrasting with the blue steel that the mitts were made of. One of the guards in the back let out a small gasp, but another one slapped his hand over the part of his mask where his mouth would be and silenced him.

"How could you do such a thing?!" the captain replied with shock. "Heinous criminals such as yourself do not deserve the gift of life! We will stop you here and now."

Derma merely stared down the bold speaker, taking note of his slightly wider than normal eyes that weren't entirely visible through the holes in his mask. Suddenly, a purple aura began to engulf his body while he began to chuckle.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today is your lucky day!" he exclaimed with gusto. "You'll be one of the few sentient creatures in millenia to get a proper look at the well-aged might of a former Destroyer!"

Derma yelled, tossed his arms to his sides and spread his legs slightly, letting his divine energy spread throughout the room, where it morphed into a gust of wind that blew around artifacts and forced the guards to lifted their arms to block their faces, pushing some of them back. When the wind subsided and they looked back up. They saw Derma stand still in the same spot, a small crater now at his feet. But there was another difference; a translucent orange barrier engulfed a chunk of the room, trapping them all with their monstrous opponent. Derma quickly turned around and looked at Mamba, who the guards could see was holding her hand towards the barrier while the strange jewel on her head maintained a consistent pink glow. Her son gave a thumbs up to her, which she responded to with her free hand. He then faced back to the guards, teleporting towards them and beginning their battle.

* * *

Mamba let her hand down, but kept up the concentration required to maintain the barrier that sealed the guards in with her son. With her hands now behind her back, she watched the two parties clash. Given a small stretch of time, she was able to make out two oddities. First off, it seemed that while the guards weren't really dealing any substantial damage to Derma or even threatening him in the slightest, they were doing an uncannily good job at dodging his rapid attacks and energy waves. They didn't even appear to be overly agile; some of their movements and maneuvers came off as relatively clumsy at times. The second oddity took a little longer to notice, but with enough concentration Mamba eventually realized only 4 of the guards were in the arena. No matter how hard she looked, she could not locate the 5th.

Mamba quickly turned to her side and threw her hands forward. She looked with a satisfied grin at the masked guardian, now suspended in an attacking position in mid-air after attempting to pounce on her in a failed assassination attempt. The trooper feared the worst at this point, but he was surprised when Mamba merely sat down and went back to watching her son's fight. She wasn't even pointed at him anymore, nor looking at him.

"How are you able to keep all these tricks up?" he asked incredulously, still floating in the air in the progressively uncomfortable pose. "Surely magic like this must be draining your energy, no?"

Mamba did not answer, leaving her disarmed opponent to ponder further.

"Wait a second. Are you an Osion?"

This finally caught the magician's attention. "Took you long enough to figure that one out." she replied haughtily.

"I've heard about their witches. I assume you are one of them?"

"Mhm."

"Your power is a little more understandable now. But still, this seems far too impressive even for the likes of you."

Mamba let out a little giggle before she hobbled over to where the man floated, leaning on his outstretched arm wielding a pike.

"I'll let you in on a little secret, chum. Clowns like you have been trying to figure out the secret for eons now, what with your "equations" and "formulas" or whatever. Truth is, it's quite simple: As we grow older, our magical power grows and matures like a fine wine. When Derma and I wished for immortality, he also wished for me to be frozen to exactly 0.01 seconds before the end of my natural lifespan, the very state I am in at this moment."

"Wait… You two are immortal?!"

"Why of course we are! We've been around for millions of years at this point. It's sort of a necessity when trying to enact a plan."

"A plan? What plan?"

"Oh my goodness, that's another thing I hate about you people! You have no imagination, nor capacity to think longer term. I would tell you more, but if I did I'd have to kill you. Speaking of which…"

Mamba stretched out her wrinkly gray finger and put it up to the guard's head. Before he could say anything, a tiny beam pierced through his skull. Only a little blood trickled out of the microscopic wound, but after releasing her levitation spell, the body crashed to the ground lifelessly. The witch then sat down and returned to watching the brawl between her son and the guards.

* * *

Derma was steadily growing weary of the battle. Not physically, of course, for he had too much stamina for that to happen at this stage. Rather, he was being worn down by the fact the battle had come to a stalemate. Sure, the guards hadn't been able to land any solid blows, but neither had he done so on the guards. He could sense their energy was a miniscule fraction of his even when fighting together., so how were they able to keep up with his merciless attacks?

The head guard swiped at Derma with his pike. He dodged and fired a purple beam from his finger. Once again it missed, but not entirely, for the captain had slipped and the projectile had been able to cut away half of his mask. The whole thing eventually slipped off and crumbled to the floor, revealing the man behind the mask to be some sort of fish-like creature, with gray, puffy cheeks and aquamarine scales along the top half of his head. Derma dragged himself to the edge of the arena and stared at the creature carefully, for he seemed rather familiar. Suddenly, it clicked.

"I see now. You are one of those beings, the ones who can see the future. Kanassans, correct?" Derma asked. "That would explain why you are able to dodge all my attacks so effortlessly."

"That is correct!" the unmasked captain replied. "Over many years we have honed our future sight to be able to read as far - or close - into the future as we like. No matter how powerful any intruders may be, we are able to read their movements and react accordingly seconds before they even perform them. Many have attempted to brute force through and desecrate this holy museum before you, and all of them have fallen before us."

"I must say, you are quite proficient at haughty boasts." Derma replied, unphased by the revelation. "In fact, I must have future sight myself, because I already know how to beat you all."

He spread his legs and held up his right arm slightly, where a medium-sized purple Ki ball crackled and grew within the raised-up palm.

"One good shot. That's all I need to swat you like flies."

Derma stretched his arm and launched the energy ball directly at the party of Kanassans. As was to be expected, they weaved out of the line of fire with ease. As they were spread out, Derma launched another similar purple ball, this time directly targeted at the captain. Again he dodged, but as he jolted to the side, he had to jump out of the way yet again just in time to dodge another projectile that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. When he recovered, he saw that there were two purple Ki balls, both still fully intact and bouncing along the walls of the forcefield they were entrapped in. He then looked back to Derma, who was now grinning while holding two more projectiles in either of his hands.

"To think that you actually made me worry when it took not even 5 seconds of critical thought to figure you out."

His smirk morphed into a wide-eyed, almost psychotic smile. "HOPEFULLY YOU'LL BE ABLE TO RESTART YOUR STREAK IN THE AFTERLIFE!" he shouted. He then began to pellet the 4 Kanassans with a ballista of projectiles, gleefully laughing as he did so. As they dodged, he kept firing more and more until they almost totally filled up the barrier. He then quietly slipped out and stood by Mamba's side. They both watched as the Kanassan guardsmen sweated and did everything they could to dodge the swarm of blasts bouncing around that they were trapped in with. One tried to pound away at the barrier, another tried to blast away the projectiles. Both of these tactics proved futile. Finally, Derma and Mamba heard a scream; one of the Kanassans had been hit, the explosion being contained in and clouding the view within and from outside the barrier. In the meantime, they heard two more shouts, followed by muffled thuds. When the smoke began to clear, they saw only the captain remained, his compatriots lying as charred, bleeding corpses on the ground. The lone Kanassan stopped dodging. He instead faced directly towards the malevolent reptilian pair and began to charge one final blast aimed at them. Before he could even fire it, one more of Derma's bouncing shots caught him from the back, killing him with ease. Unlike the others, he did not scream.

Derma dissipated the remaining energy balls, and Mamba let down the barrier. They began to resume their walk, being careful to thread around the bodies, when a massive tremor shook the building. The booming force was enough to make Mamba trip, with her and her cane being caught just in time by her son before they hit the ground. The force had come from the opposite end of the building; the place they had been aiming for to begin with. That's where they headed upon regaining their composure, with Derma carrying his mother on his back so he could run faster.

* * *

As Derma and Mamba ran into the northernmost chamber of the Royal Museum, their first observation was that most all of the guards had been killed. Marble and stone shrapnel was scattered all along the carpeted floor, patches of which were burning away. Almost all of the glass cases in the room had also been shattered, with their plaques advertising and giving history for objects that were no longer within them, all except for a luxurious-looking throne, which was placed out in the open and seemingly left unperturbed. When the pair looked to the eastern end of the room, they instead found a gaping hole where a wall was once was. Outside of this hole was a Sadal battle cruiser. But it was no ordinary ship; for one thing, the Sadal Defense Force logo on its side had been painted over with a symbol resembling a jolly roger with an Arcosian skull in the middle of the two bones. There were also two men on top of the vessel, but they were not Saiyans; the first and front-most was a slender Arcosian resembling Frieza, but with blue membranes along his body and darker skin below his waist. Behind him was a hulking, gray brute with black armor with spiked shoulder pads, long thin ears like a Namekian's and bright yellow eyes. The smaller of the two took note of Derma and Mamba looking at them and responded.

"Greetings there! Looks like you got some blood on your hands, quite literally as a matter of fact. Unfortunately, we got here before you and have stolen whatever treasure you were aiming for. My name's Frost, and my comrade here is named Sansho, and we'll be taking these goods. The profits will make us a killing!"

Sansho hopped into the ship via a hatch on the roof. Frost followed suit while sealing the hatch, and they prepared the vessel to enter lightspeed and leave the planet with their booty. They ignited the engines, and Frost pressed the button that would allow the ship to travel at the maximum speed. It took them a few seconds to realize the craft was not moving. Frost pressed the button a few more times, but still nothing happened. He was about to leave to another room, when suddenly a blue steel boot stomped and smashed through the cockpit's roof where the hatch once was, tearing it fairly cleanly. A blue hand reached down and grabbed Frost by his tail, where he came face-to-face with Derma, his vision upside-down. He was able to make out Mamba in the background, the strange gem on her forehead now glowing while she held her arms out and smirked. Sansho watched on, expecting a brawl to break out. Instead, Derma whispered something into Frost's ear before carelessly dropping him back into the cockpit. Without saying a word to his comrade, the Arcosian ran to the back of the ship, where a short while later he came back out with something in his hand. Sansho prepared to object, but Frost merely shushed him. He then flew back up and put the small object into Derma's palm. His neutral expression turned into a smile before he floated off the ship.

"He didn't want anything else?" Sansho asked as Frost piled back into the pilot's seat.

"No, he said the rest of our loot had no worth to him." his partner-in-crime replied. Sansho was a bit confused, but considering the value of the particular object the stranger had stolen it was a little bit more understandable. They once more attempted to enter the hyper-drive, which to their pleasant surprise they were able to do now perfectly, free of Mamba's magic.

* * *

The serpentine duo were now the only ones left among the wrecked room. They looked around themselves before Mamba spoke.

"Now what?" she asked.

"We wait here." Derma replied. "Let the standard militias, private contractors and special forces come and go. Once they realize how much we eclipse them, they will be forced to send in their strongest warriors, alongside which Broly and Kale will surely be."

Mamba nodded before sitting down, leaning on the side of the luxurious throne before she began to take a nap. Derma himself sat directly on the chair which had been passed down through generations of kings and gods, his right leg crossed over the other. He lifted up his arm and unwrapped his fingers, revealing his ultimate prize: A pristine, emerald-green set of Potara earrings.

* * *

_Champa's Planet_

The fat, purple cat god Champa was laying on one of the chairs of his private suite, snacking on some bright red jelly with a spoon while laying on the sofa.. He was having trouble restraining himself from devouring the meal whole; his assistant Vados had been complaining about this more often recently, and he had been trying to fix the problem to mixed results. Right as he was thinking about this, the titular green-robed Angel came in through the doors of the wooden room, staff in hand.

"Derma is active again." she spoke in an uncharacteristically serious, monotone voice, not even bothering to greet Champa or otherwise address him before relaying the news. The Destroyer was off-put by the news, but he remained calm.

"So what?" he responded with slight indignation. "He's been hanging out on a lifeless planet for eons now. He could just be out to get some fresh air."

"He and Mamba just attacked the Royal Museum of the Divine. They're just sitting there as we speak."

Champa was now growing frustrated with his Angel's tone. "How is that my problem? I'm a God of Destruction, not an intergalactic babysitter. Plantayne's an amazing place, they can deal with it on their own."

"HE STOLE POTARAS, MASTER CHAMPA." Vados exclaimed, now almost bordering on an angry shout. She rec-omposed herself as best as she could before speaking again. "And he's just sitting there with them. You saw that mysterious Saiyan from Universe 7 come over here, and it isn't a coincident Derma became active again around that time. You know damn well what he's planning."

Champa looked as if he was about to retort, but he ultimately fell silent. The two just stared at each other. Vados, calmed even further but still nervous, spoke up again.

"Look Master, I get it. Derma was your teacher, he's the one who brought you to this position, he was the only one who believed you had the talent for the job when everyone was hyping up Beerus back in the day. But there's a reason why he was expelled from the pantheon. No matter his intentions, he's still a danger to the entire multiverse."

"I need to think this over." Champa replied.

"We don't have time to think it over, you have to take action-"

"I SAID I NEED TO THINK THIS OVER." and with that, Champa left the room through the window and flew away in a fuss.

Vados was disappointed but not surprised at the reaction. She knew that when Champa said he would "think about" something, it really meant that he did not intend to take any serious action. With a sigh and with her master nowhere in sight, she waved her staff in the air. A cloud of cyan dust appeared in front of her, eventually giving way to the vaint visage of a person in some sort of dark location.

"Hello there." she said to the mirage, catching its attention. It looked directly at Vados before replying.

"Lord Vados? What business do you have with me?"

"I need you to do a little favor for me." She then gave Derma and Mamba's names, physical descriptions and their background.

"Hm. This sounds like a rough job, but I'll figure something out." the shadowy figure on the other end replied. "Rest assured, I will eliminate my target."


	10. A Simple Spar

_Please excuse the off-schedule release of this chapter. Due to a mixture of things (mainly being less of a priority now compared to other things I'm doing and upcoming exams) the pace of updates is going to be a little more irregular for a few weeks. With that said..._

_Namek_

Broly and Kale had been busy for the past several hours honing their energy control via a regimen of rest and meditation, as organized by their tutor Saonel. The two Saiyans and the Namekians were now meditating while balancing themselves on wooden spires on the top of the Martial Arts Arena's sides, allowing them a view of the sky. In contrast with its Universe 7 counterpart, Namek's twin suns were setting, lighting the sky with the faint orange glow of sunset mixed in with the olive green tint of the grassy plain planet's atmosphere. But the Saiyan pair were growing restless by the minute at this point, and eventually Broly let go of his position and asked a question.

"So, uh… Are we actually going to do any combat training? This meditation stuff is getting kinda boring."

"You already have a surplus of physical strength," Saonel replied, "but you still have to work on controlling and using that energy properly."

"Honestly, I agree with Broly here." Kale chimed in. "I wanna have a sparring match with him. It would be shame not being able to see what he's got."

This remark caught Saonel off-guard. He couldn't recall any other time when Kale had shown such eagerness to fight of her own volition, especially since she had seemingly forgotten the incident with Broly's first transformation earlier that day. _Either she's making great strides in getting over her anxiety, or Broly's Universe 7 Saiyan influence is really rubbing off on her…_

"Very well, I'll allow a friendly spar. But we're gonna travel to the far side of the planet just in case things get out of hand."

The two Saiyans smiled and high-fived each other in response, not even phased by Saonel's implication as to the nature of their power.

* * *

"I didn't know you were a mechanic!"

"I learned some basic skills from my dad when he was still around. Always wanted me to learn the tools of the trade."

So went the interaction between Leemo and Saonel as they glided along the grass together in a small green hovercraft. Cheelai and Caulifla were sitting in the back, gossiping about matters that were an enigma to the two men in the front seat, while Broly and Kale flew right besides the vessel just slightly overhead.

"I think we have flown out far enough." Saonel exclaimed, slowing down the hovercraft. The Saiyans flying at their side also slowed down, dropping closer to the ground as they did so, eventually coming to a stop along with the vehicle, which had been parked close to the edge of a grass cliffside just tall enough to give a view of the wide, mostly empty Namekian valley with some hills and trees in the distance, offering a perfect vantage point of where Broly and Kale would be having their duel.

"I'm excited for you, pal." Cheelai said to Broly with a hand on his back. "I'm sure you'll do great!"

"Don't be so sure, greenie." Cheelai said from behind her, startling Cheelai. "Kale's no weakling either. And if that monkey power thingy from earlier comes into play, Broly's gonna be in for a pounding!"

Cheelai rolled her eyes at this remark before sitting with Cheelai and Saonel. The other two flew down to begin their battle.

Broly and Kale stood with their backs against the other's as if they were about to participate in a stand-off in an old western film. The rest of their friends sat on the nearby cliffside, watching down while humorously noting the size discrepancy between their acquaintances. However, they promptly fell silent and focused as the two warriors began to slowly walk away from each other, their footsteps slow, deliberate and in near perfect harmony. As the distance between them grew, each of them held their hands to their sides and began charging neon green Ki blasts within their outstretched fingers. They continued walking while doing so, but upon the two projectiles being fully charged, they stopped.

In the blink of an eye, they hastily turned around and hurled the Ki blasts at each other. The energy balls met where they had stood back-to-back initially, squishing against each other before vanishing in a small green explosion followed by a cloud of smoke just big enough to totally conceal both combatants. While Cheelai, Leemo and Caulifla squinted in confusion, Saonel merely stood up with his hands behind his back, easily keeping track of the Saiyans' power levels. When they re-emerged, they were right up close to each other, the force of their movement having blown the smoke away. Broly threw a low punch, but Kale was able to take advantage of her height and dodged under the punch with ease. Another punch came her way, but she jumped over it and gave a firm kick to Broly's cheek as she came back down, bouncing off of his face and back to the ground. With this new opening, Kale flew up and threw a volley of punches straight into Broly's chestplate. They didn't seem to do much damage, and they certainly did not stop Broly from aiming his head at Kale and firing more green energy blasts out of it. He continued to fire these pellets while his opponent dodged them while backing away, leaving the blasts to hit the ground and leave sizeable craters in the soil.

"Geez, neither of them have even transformed and they're already fighting like it's a death match." Leemo uttered worriedly. "Are they gonna be OK?"

"Well, Broly doesn't seem to be too phased so far, and Kale is more durable in her base state than she looks." Caulifla replied. "Call me selfish, but I'm a bit more concerned about our own welfare…"

Cheelai and Leemo looked at each other with uncertainty. Saonel did not react, continuing to stare head-on at the escalating battle. Just then, they all heard a rumbling accompanied by an explosion from the air. They all looked back up to see Kale falling limply down to the surface, smoke trailing behind her partially cut-up dress.

"Don't worry, she isn't even unconscious, let alone dead." their Namekian guide said before any of them could show any sort of concern. "She's trying to fake out Broly, I can tell."

If that was the case, the trick was working swimmingly. Even from that distance the spectators could see Broly partially trembling in place, wondering if he had let himself too lose yet again.

"Is she insane?!" Cheelai interjected with frustration. "She should know damn well that deceiving Broly like that is playing with fire. What if he loses it again?"

"I have no idea what she's thinking," Caulifla replied, "all I know is that this battle is bringing out a side of her that resembles her opponent's recklessness."

Kale finally flapped one eye open and smirked. With the gap made via Broly's hesitation, she quickly put her body into position and fired a beam that the Saiyan couldn't react to in time, forcing him to take it head on. When the green light cleared, he wasn't too terribly damaged aside from a few bruises and cuts in his clothes, but as it cleared he could hear a swishing sound. When his vision was totally clear again, he could see Kale had used the opening to transform into the basic Super Saiyan state she had demonstrated during their meditation training, the golden aura matching the color of her extended hair.

Kale teleported in front of Broly and launched a vicious lunging punch. Her opponent could already feel by just how much the force of this blow had multiplied compared to the previous ones. He lifted his feet, glided off the ground and rapidly flew backwards, ducking and dodging the volley of mid-air fists Kale was throwing. When one of the punches glided just past his head and ruffled his hair slightly, Broly grabbed her outstretched arm and gained a firm hold on it. While Kale struggled, the taller Saiyan spun her around, searching for a place to throw her. Finally, he made sight of the mouth of a distant, small cave. After a few more spins around his head, she flung Kale at top speed into the opening. She flew far, but was ultimately able to stop herself just before making contact with the back wall. When she regained her composure, she noticed that there was a huge hole inside the cave that went straight down into a dark abyss. And instead of leaving to continue her fight, she slowly began to drop down it, through which Broly eventually came and followed her through.

* * *

At first, nothing could be seen. But as Kale dropped farther and farther down the wide hole, she eventually caught a blue-tinted light at the end of the vertical tunnel. The sight that greeted her upon touching down to the very bottom mesmerized her, serving as the only thing thus far that had been able to distract her from the mighty battle with Broly. The wide stone room underneath the unassuming cave entrance was filled to the brim with sparkling water, where gray rock platforms stood within or even occasionally flowed along with the fast-paced stream that was running through the whole length of the tunnel that began from the central room, with other similar, semispherical openings appearing further down the vast stream. The walls of the cave and even the stalactites and stalagmites were dotted with brilliant azure diamonds, whose vibrant sheen lit up the whole cave with a tranquilizing blue hue. Kale stood in the current area on one of two stone platforms, which faced directly opposite each other. And following a few seconds of rumbling and calling by a familiar voice, Broly touched down on the other platform and came face-to-face with his counterpart.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Kale asked. "You almost don't wanna fight anymore. When you think of it that way, maybe it was a mistake coming down here."

"It's no mistake for me, that's for sure." Broly replied. "Not even a month ago, a place such as this would've been beyond even my wildest dreams. To see it, to feel it with my own body and hands… ...It's dreamlike."

"I'd like to say thank you, Kale."

"Wh- what? I barely did anything! We haven't even known each other for a week!"

"You're right, physically you haven't done much. But your mere existence motivated me to make the journey to Universe 6. In this short time, I have met so many new, exciting people, good and bad. I have seen marvels of machinery and nature that were elusive to me beyond a wrinkly, eventually destroyed little book. If your mere existence could push a man like me to discover so much in such little time, then I can't wait to see what you'll do - what we'll do - if we spend more time together."

Kale was momentarily flattered by the giant's speech. Before long, however, her mind turned to the more immediately pressing question.

"So, are we going to fight in here? It's a great battlefield, but I don't wanna ruin this place."

Broly and Kale's auras wrapped around them as they powered up together. The combination of gold and white slowly faded for both parties into a bright green sheath of Ki, enveloping them as their bodies changed and multiplied in power. While Kale's hair grew even longer and adopted a green color, Broly strained and struggled as he had done earlier that day to enter his Great Ape state without going berserk. Slowly but surely his eyes turned gold and his hair stuck up higher and higher without changing color. As his form came closer to its full power, he had to groan and grit his teeth harder while maintaining further concentration. Meanwhile, Kale's mind was already being clogged up by that primal mindset that she had taken on earlier. She too strained herself to not give in to the omen and keep control.

After charging for a bit, both fighters fell silent and their auras snapped out of existence, leaving them in their almost-transformed states. They slowly lifted their heads, with Kale's emerald irises meeting Broly's gold ones. At first they remained neutral, only breathing. Then, they smiled before allowing their power to come out slowly and engulf the arena, momentarily blocking out the blue shine of the cave with their green before it dimmed and only appeared around where they stood. Kale could feel the new slice of Broly's latent ancestral power blazing inside her, providing a boost to fight on the other Saiyan's level. Meanwhile, the latter looked upon his beefed-up body, admiring his newfound control over the state which had caused him so much difficulty in the past.

Broly and Kale warped before their fists clashed in the center of the stone room. They continued to chase after one another down the illuminated underground stream, their rapid movement cleaving through the water as they swiped and blasted at each other while going further down. At one point, after dodging another punch, Kale flipped upside down and set her feet on the top of the cave. From her vantage point, she fired two green homing blasts at her rival, who momentarily fled the other way in a bid to escape the missiles. When he saw this would not be possible, he took in a deep breath before diving into the water of the stream, which he swam through while still being chased after by the blasts. Kale was now having a hard time keeping track of where Broly was, his Ki signature being heavily muddied by the blasts she had sent and the stream itself. Suddenly she felt the energy rise exponentially; in that time, Broly had already appeared behind her before she could even realize, delivering a swift elbow to her back and sending her crashing through the leftmost wall of the tunnel. Despite hitting the rock, she continued to smash through it, making a deep burrow until Broly could no longer see her. He once again made chase, his own size making the hole even wider. But when he reached the end, Kale was already there, having just finished charging another beam between her hands, which she fired at full force. Broly kept trying to move through it, but now he had to land on the ground and struggle against it, and overall he was being pushed back. This didn't last long, however, for when Broly was reaching the mouth of the smaller tunnel their fight had carved, he retaliated with his own mouth beam, which clashed with Kale's. Both fighters powered up their beams making them grow wider and wider, neither being able to get a decisive upper hand. Their beams became so large and so bright that they eventually clogged up their arena and totally engulfed it in a blinding, neon green light, obscuring both of them.

* * *

"Oh c'mon, what the heck?" Caulifla asked impatiently, still sitting with her new friends on the very same cliff. "We've been waiting for nearly 3 minutes now. I came here to watch a fight, not a vanishing act!"

"I've already explained they've been fighting underground." Saonel replied. "Haven't you felt the tremors?"

"Weird how good your hearing is, but you can't listen to me. I wanted to _watch _them fight more! What am I supposed to do, use my imagination?"

Shortly after this sarcastic remark, the ground began to shake again. This tremor was the most turbulent they had experienced yet, jostling them around to where Cheelai was tempted to wrap herself around one of the other members of their party for support. Eventually, the rumble subsided as two trails of green Ki blasted out from and shattered the top of a distant cave. The two auras flew upwards in unison before sharply curving away from each other.

Broly turned back towards his opponent and braced himself for the mighty impact that awaited him. As he got closer, he saw Kale too was preparing one final punch of her own. Her eyes, formerly aquamarine in color, were now totally yellow, and her face had taken a more intent, almost deranged-looking glare. Understanding what this meant, Broly momentarily let loose and manifested his latent rage just this once before they clashed at top speed.

The contact of the two warriors' fists sent a shockwave along the ground below which ruffled the grass and awoke various bugs and other small creatures in the soil from the torrential wind that it created. The two hung in the air, processing the force for a mere second before both were sent flying backwards, eventually crashing and dragging into the ground dozens of meters away from each other. The mounds of dirt their impact flung up circled around and clouded their bodies lying on the ground.

"Well, that must've hurt." Leemo said awkwardly, not really sure what else he could say in this situation. He looked towards their Namekian partner and asked "Are they ok?"

Saonel continue to stand where he had stood the entire time. He said nothing.

"Saonel, answer the question." Cheelai asserted.

He said nothing.

"Fine then. If you're not gonna show proper manners, I'm gonna check up on them myself." As she began to walk towards the cliffside preparing to drag down, however, a gust of wind stopped her. It wasn't anything overly severe, but if was enough to catch her by surprise, blowing her hair around frantically and forcing her to stop where she was standing. She turned back to Leemo and Caulifla: They were surprised as well. That's when she noticed how much darker they and the ground had become. When she looked up, the entire sky, which only a moment ago had been a beautiful green and orange of the final hours of the daytime, was now totally covered in imposing, thick dark clouds, letting through only a miniscule ration of sunlight.

"I'm no astronomer," Caulifla said while looking up in tandem with her peers, "but I don't think that's supposed to happen."

Before any of them could comprehend what was happening, the darkening, empty plain was then bathed by an emerald-green flash.

* * *

_Plantayne_

He hadn't found the need to so much as lift his body from his new throne, but already dozens of dead soldiers were strewn around the carpeted floor of the room of the Royal Museum of the Divine which Derma and Mamba had occupied. The hole that had bored in earlier by the weapons of the mysterious bandits Frost and Sansho offered a view of the outside world, where they could occasionally spot military craft circling around the target, searching for an opening. There too were a few armored, broken bodies. None of this had been able to make Derma or his mother break a sweat; they were already on the verge of zoning out.

And yet, at that moment, he felt something. It was vague and distant, but he was already familiar with this feeling. Turning to the right of his new throne, he saw that Mamba, who had been sitting at its side, was now stood upright, staring blankly out the hole in the wall.

"You feel it too, don't you mother?"

"I may be old, but that doesn't mean you should ask the obvious."

There was a pause before Mamba spoke again.

"So what do you think, my dear?" she asked.

"I'm still not quite sure what to think, truth be told. What I do know is that there will be far less survivors after the purge than I had originally speculated."

* * *

_Back on Namek…_

The isolated plain now resembled the site of a cataclysmic event. The sheer force that had been exerted just a few moments earlier had torn and vaporized the grass from the turf for miles around, leaving nothing but cold, dry stone. Dust was now whipping around wildly in the dark gray sky, and off in the distance mountains that once stood proudly overseeing the expanse of land now had massive craters and punctures in their sides. Not a single living creature could be seen all around, save for two major exceptions.

The ferocious, sparking power that coursed throughout Broly's body, the very same sensation that had pierced itself into the Saiyan's rapidly-beating heart and his wild mind was utterly maddening. As he lifted his immensely-muscled form and the tiny fragments of blue cloth that once formed the training outfit Saonel had given him faded out of view, he got a full glimpse at the figure standing within the miles-high barrier of green light, casting its shine just a small distance away from him. She too possessed an equally intimidating figure, her own muscles having multiplied in size to an extent that Broly had no prior reference to while stretching her own similar outfit. Most noticeably, however, every other feature in her eye other than her clear white sclera had vanished, and her hair had grown even longer and fully assumed the green shade that had become so iconic among the people of her home planet; a mirror reflection of the state Broly was in at that moment, save for a trace of lipstick around her mouth.

Broly was worried out of his mind. This sight and the scenery surrounding it were far too uncannily similar to the nightmare he had prior to landing on Sadal. He was half-expecting the mysterious force to re-appear and suck the two warriors towards each other. But if you looked at his face or his posture, you would find zero evidence. In fact, Broly himself wasn't even aware of this uncertainty, for it had long since been buried underneath the full manifestation of the undying lust for battle of his innumerable ancestors. And rather than cowering in fear or making any attempt to communicate to Kale beforehand, he merely gave a crooked smile and lurched his body into position, bracing it for flight. The other woman responded similarly before the two hurled themselves at one another with not a shred of regret or hesitation.

The first punch the pair tossed at each other shattered the ground beneath them further, forming a smaller shockwave that kicked up bits of dust and gravel as their fists made soon as this transpired, Broly and Kale dropped to the ground and began to furiously clash their fists. Neither was able to gain the upper hand until Kale whiffed a blow, letting Broly grab her arm. With the memory of the first time this had happened fresh in her mind, she screamed and fired a blast into Broly's face before kicking him away in the stomach. She flew at him while he was still recovering from the blow. She prepared to swing yet another punch, but this time Broly generated a thin, translucent green barrier around him before diving down into the ground, crafting a craggy hole in the terrain as he did so. Kale stopped right above the freshly burrowed hole, looking around her and down the hole to try to locate him. When she looked back up, she only then just dodged a large green beam coming vertically out of the hole in time. Before she knew it, another came out from the ground at the spot where she had dodged. This cycle of dodging and beams coming from the underground continued until she became fed up with it, which didn't take long considering her already animalistic state. She lifted up her right fist, which became enshrouded in green aura. She crashed it down directly into the ground with a beastly shout, the impact causing the ground beneath her to totally crumble into a massive crater, exposing the previously submerged Broly to the elements. Before he could formulate a new plan of attack, Kale charged at him, jumped up and began to press her foot down on his neck as she came back down. He let out a few groans at the pain as his body was bent lower and lower. Kale giggled in satisfaction, but this glee was replaced by surprise as Broly turned back to look up at her and fired yet another mouth beam directly into her face. While she was off-balance, Broly wrapped his arms around her in a bear-hug and suplexed her into the rock, causing a loud smash to echo all around. He turned back to look at his downed target, who was already lifting herself up with a shake in her movements. The two green-haired brutes looked at each other once more before continuing their fight.

Cheelai got up from the ground in a daze. As she lifted up her body, her orange companion Leemo was able to do so as well, no longer trapped under the other. Just a few feet away from them, Caulifla was already sat up, rubbing her head with a slight groan. When they got up on their feet and realized the state of the area at that moment, they turned to Saonel, who had seemingly gotten up much earlier than them, for he was stood in same standing position from earlier. When the other three looked out from the cliff which now had several big cuts in its face, they saw their Saiyan friends clashing in their ultimate forms.

"They really just went full power, didn't they?" Cheelai asked after taking a deep breath.

"So, do we evacuate the planet or not?" Leemo asked. Caulifla and Cheelai looked back at him disapprovingly; Leemo realized his question was stupid to ask around the Saiyans' best friends who wouldn't want to abandon them any time soon.

"Namek will be fine." Saonel calmly replied. "It's endured some very difficult times in the past. Besides, it seems like Broly and Kale have just enough control to not do anything that could outright destroy it."

"And you know this because…?" Caulifla asked.

Saonel opened his mouth to respond. Before long, however, he realized he didn't have a valid answer. He fell silent before turning back to the battle.

Broly and Kale, still standing in the middle of the sprawling crater they had formed, now had their arms wrapped around each others', wrestling vigorously. They had a brief back-in-forth in this position, pushing and pulling the other back and forth, unable to gain a decisive advantage. Broly prepared to fire yet another mouth blast, but Kale caught onto this lightning-fast, responding with a similar attack just in time. The two beams pushed them apart from each other, and upon fading away, Kale was in a position to try out yet another new technique. Stretching her right arm up, Ki began to gather all around the hand and upper part of the arm into a blade.

"Hey!" Caulifla called to Saonel upon watching this. "I think she's copying your Ki sword!"

"Not quite."

Back on the battlefield, Kale's green weapon began to develop two protrusions from other side. They steadily formed into two curved blades, transforming the blade into a large battleaxe. From her distance, it only took a single leap for the woman to reach Broly and swing the weapon at him. He spun out of the way, with a large gash in the earth being left where he formerly stood. Kale merely took this as a challenge and continued to wildly swing her axe at Broly, forcing him to walk back slowly while dodging the attacks.

After this went on for a while, Broly leapt far back and began to charge something within both of his palms. Kale was angered by this and once again ran at him with her weapon. Broly merely continued to charge the strange attack until thin strings of green Ki began to extend from the backs of his hands, almost as if they were the whiskers of some sort of large beast. While Caulifla squinted trying to make out what he was doing, Cheelai and Leemo's minds flashed all the way back to the battle on Earth, remembering the technique Goku had used to momentarily immobilize Broly, and how he had been able to partially copy it shortly after escaping it. Sure enough, his former opponent pointed his palms at Kale just as she tried to attack, and before she knew it she could no longer move. While she struggled against the force, Broly stood there and broke a sweat in satisfaction. Instead of counter-attacking, he merely stood in place while breathing heavily. So tired he was that he failed to notice when Kale broke it. Thankfully, she too was exhausted, assuming a similar breathing routine to her sparring partner.

"Alright, how the heck are they already this tired?" Caulifla asked indignantly.

"Yeah, that's a bit strange. Broly has fought people just as strong without getting this tuckered out." Cheelai said alongside the other woman, thinking back to Frieza and the one known as Gogeta. "Either way, at least this fight is winding down."

All of them looked a little relieved upon hearing this. But of course, there was always one exception, as had been case the entire time they had been spectating. That one exception was their Namekian guide Saonel, who his partners faced upon seeing he was not reacting the same as they were, keeping up his stoic observation.

"Oh great," Caulifla groaned, "now what?"

"You're partially correct," Saonel said facing towards them. "their fight is coming to a close. Your mistake was assuming it would end with a whimper rather than a bang."

Kale shook herself out of her stupor and growled once again, stirring her opponent to action once more. Her aura shaking around her more powerfully than ever before, she jettisoned herself straight into the air until all the people and cracks in the land below her shrunk to a fraction of their normal size. She pointed her arm diagonally downward at Broly, energy gravitating towards the center of her hand and building up into a big blast. From the ground, Broly could see the Ki gathering and responded with his own attack. He held up both his arms upright, where another large green sphere materialized between them. The mere force of these attacks being charged was enough to shatter the earth even further, with the lightning that came out of them extending and dragging across the ground leaving massive gashes from which lava and more bursts of green energy came out from. In his first display of caring up until that point , Saonel created a barrier around him and the other spectators, protecting them from falling as the cliff on which they sat on crumbled into a pile of rocks beneath their feet. With their blasts now fully charged, Broly and Kale looked at each other one last time before firing them with disturbing cackles. The world around them violently shook as the two spheres clashed together in a brilliant green spectacle, illuminating the desolate land their battle had created. Broly too lifted himself into the air, firing scatters of smaller shots to power up his original, massive projectile in a bid to overwhelm Kale's. The muscular woman did the same, and the conglomerate of energy continued to expand and mesh further. After firing a few additional blasts, however, Broly suddenly felt a new sensation; a throbbing sore coursing throughout his body. As he grunted in pain, he looked to see Kale reacting to something painful, her hair now flickering between green and its original black shade as if she was rapidly running out of energy. Both of them understood they had to end this fight soon, and so they did, expending their very last reserves firing near-identical beams in unison to power up the original super-sized energy balls as much as they could. As soon as the last of their final beams trickled out of their palms, the clashing bombs began to glow a bright white.

"Brace yourselves!" Saonel said to Caulifla, Cheelai and Leemo while strengthening the barrier he had erected earlier. They instinctively crowded behind him right as Broly and Kale's attacks disappeared in a brilliant explosion. The glistening shockwave trailed around for miles, engulfing and suffocating entire Namekian villages that fell within its radius. Even the sky was consumed by its indomitable luster, leaving nearly a third of the planet as nothing but a blinding white space.

* * *

As Saonel lowered the barrier, Caulifla, Cheelai and Leemo arose to a sight they hadn't been able to anticipate earlier. It was if the chaos of Broly and Kale's legendary duel had been magically reversed: The sky was the cloudless dark green of sunset once more, and the blanket of grass that had been cleaved off the ground before had almost totally regrown. The only thing that hadn't been restored were the large gashes that had been left in the earth, whose innards now were covered in a moss-like substance sprouting bountiful pink flowers. As the trio scanned the horizon, they saw their two comrades laying face-down on the ground, their clothes tattered and their bodies wounded.

Broly felt Cheelai and Leemo lift him up gently. His progressively clearing vision saw Saonel and Caulifla helping Kale up in a similar way. His body was aching all over, but for him it was the good kind of soreness, like that felt after a good exercise routine. Kale, must've felt similarly, for while she was hobbling slowly with her friends' assistance, she too couldn't help but smile.

"So, did you have fun?" Cheelai asked Broly somewhat nervously a few minutes later as he and Kale were being sat down and bandaged up.

"Mhm." he replied.

The two sat in silence as their wounds were tended to. Eventually, while Saonel silently deliberated with himself as to how he would explain the bizarre weather conditions and frightening explosion to the Elders, Kale spoke up.

"Hey sis, I wanna ask you something." she addressed Caulifla.

"Alright pal, waddya want?" she replied.

"Can we..."

"Hm?"

The group was surprised when Kale said her next line in perfect unison with Broly.

"Can we do that again?"

Saonel tucked his face into his hands with a frown. The rest of the spectators gave one last nervous chuckle.

* * *

Many hours had passed since the incredible conflict from earlier, and the last rays of Namek's suns had long since given way to a brilliant starred nighttime. This time of the day could be sensed everywhere; for instance, the great Hall of Elders off to the northeast had had even its most studious denizens retire for the night, their various devices and utensils left at their desks. Even the greatest villages had had their citizens fall into a silent, peaceful slumber, with their formerly-busy streets totally uncrowded. In one of these villages just like any other was Saonel's lifelong hut, where his friends old and new had chosen to spend the night with their ship parked nearby.

This night was far from Broly's first sleepless night; it hadn't even been his first in the past week, after all. But this time, there was no fear, no abrasion. Much like the sleeping children in nearby households, he too was in a state of bliss, aided further by his full recovery courtesy of the local village healers. Cheelai had tried to get him to settle down earlier, but there he was anyway, looking outside his hollow window into the stars while his compatriots were in a deep sleep. This was not a meaningless act of sight-seeing, however, for as Broly counted each and every one of the shining, distant constellations, he was pondering quite deeply. At that moment, he was finalizing his plan which he had been concocting for the past hour. He was a little nervous that he would stir attention to himself, but then he remembered the incredible progress in self-control he had made earlier that day alone, which reassured him. Taking a significant, yet quiet breath, he slowly shuffled out of his bed, gently paced out the door and towards the ship from which he had came.

Unsure of how long it had been, Broly flew further north until he finally reached an empty plain of grass; the newly formed mossy cracks denoted it as the same one he had fought at earlier. He dropped down from the air more gently than he ever had before, careful not to drop the well-preserved corpse of Paragus that was nestled in his arms.

The Saiyan took his time digging a hole in the soil for his father to rest in. When enough of a room had been scraped up, he gently placed the body in the freshly-carved resting place and began to fill it back up with dirt. Little by little his father fell out of sight; his body, arms and legs all were covered until all that could be seen was his face. Taking what he knew would likely be the last look at his relative's face during his lifetime, he scooped up the last bit of dirt, poured it on him and patted it down. When all of this was done, Broly merely sat in silence, resuming his stargazing with a much better view. Oh how he wished that Paragus could see such a wondrous view for himself after he had went through so, so much. But alas, things had not turned out that way. _At least he'll be able to take a nice long rest on this beautiful planet after such a crazy life_ his protege thought, ultimately deciding to spend even more time at the little tomb.

Broly continued to look at the array of stars. So transfixed he was on the glorious night sky that he initially failed to catch on to the soft tap of footsteps from behind him. When he did notice, however, he already knew who it was.

"Hey Broly." Kale said quietly. Broly turned, waved to her and gestured her to come sit next to him.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"Looking at the stars. Can't get myself to sleep."

"Ha! Same here. How can anyone sleep after experiencing something like that?"

Just then, she noticed the disturbed patch of dirt at the other Saiyan's feet.

"What's this?" she asked, gently tapping it with her foot.

"Don't touch it! Dad is resting there."

"Dad? But you told me he... Oh. I-I'm sorry."

She squirmed a bit in shame. Broly smiled and put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright! Simple mistake. Perhaps I should've marked the grave a little better."

"Thanks. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda impressed you're taking this so lightly. Although maybe it's warranted considering some of the things Cheelai said about him..."

"Yeah, we've had a rough history at times. Truth is, while I understand the things he did to me were very bad, I can't help but feel sorry for him. Spending several decades on a place like Vampa with no external contact after serving in a high-ranking position in an army of great warriors must've been rough for him."

"Rough? Are you kidding me?" Kale replied. "With having to deal with all that plus taking care of you, it's no wonder he ended up with a few screws lose."

"Y'know, I just realized that I've never asked you about your parents. What were they like?"

Kale's composed demeanor faded in favor of a hollow stare at this question. She curled up slightly without responding.

"Oh goodness! I'm sorry if that's too much of a rough subject for you. I hope I didn't spoil the-"

"Broly?" she interrupted.

"Yes?"

"Can you keep a secret?"

"O... Ok?"

"I haven't really told this to many other people. You see, I never really had parents."

"What?! You can't be serious."

"Well, that's not entirely true. I had a caretaker, but she was..."

"Y'know what?" she interjected after a brief silence. "Scratch that. I think it's best I start from the beginning..."

* * *

_Hello again everyone! With this chapter (which despite how long it took to come out really was mad fun to write), we're now more or less past the halfway point. However, the story's gonna be a taking a brief detour for a chapter or two to flesh out Broly's newest companion. We're gonna be dialing back the clock 8 years to witness the harrowing tale behind the Saiyan girls' unbreakable friendship and the mysterious backstory of Universe 6's Legendary Super Saiyan. Tune in next time for Primal Legend's first and likely only special chapter: Episode of Kale!_


	11. Episode of Kale Part 1

_Planet Sadal_

_Age 772_

Mr' Cress bank was a fairly unusual sight considering its surroundings. The well-maintained, wide wooden building was nestled on top of a grassy hill, from which huge fields of grain and vegetables and clusters of smoke from cottage chimneys could be seen for miles from the top of the landmass. The interior of the building resembled a fairly conventional office space, with multi-colored stone floors, waiting chairs along the frontmost walls and a front desk where hundreds of deposits and withdrawals were made each and every day. Despite its relatively humble appearance compared to some of Sadal's more prestigious banks, Mr. Cress' establishment played an invaluable role as one of the few worthwhile banks for the farmers and rural of the Sadal countryside. Prior to its introduction some 24 years earlier, many had had to take hours-long drives to Sadal City and back to go to one of their banks. Ever since then, that voyage which had become a matter of jokes and horror stories among the farmers of the area had been practically entirely extinguished, making the bank a celebrated part of rural life.

On this particular day, Mr. Cress himself was sitting in his office, attending to some paperwork he had been stalling on. While the stubby, gray-haired man with a white shirt and black overalls muscled his way through the mundane task, he was able to listen in on the muffled hustle, bustle and chit-chatting of the bank from within his office. Seeing as this his only loose form of entertainment at the moment, he was listening in very closely while he worked. As such, it immediately grew concerned when he heard the commotion simmer down shortly after the front doors were flapped open more viciously than normal. Then, there was a click; the distinctive chime of a blaster being loaded.

"THIS IS A ROBBERY!" said a booming voice on the other side of Cress' office door. "WHOEVER RUNS THIS PLACE BETTER SHOW UP SOON BEFORE I LOAD A BULLET FROM THIS SUCKER INTO SOMEONE'S HEAD!" Then, another voice chimed in, saying something the old banker couldn't make out.

With a great sigh, Cress opened his office door to face the intruders. The two armed men seemingly hadn't bothered to bring masks with them, leaving their faces exposed. The first one who had likely bellowed the order was a tall, burly man with a thick, shaggy black beard and an equally dark layer of hair on his head. In his hands was strapped a long, shiny steel rifle which was currently being held at ease. His partner was of a more normal stature, with sharp eyes, as well as black hair of his own which was slightly dyed red at the tip. His eyes were thinner and sharper than those of his comrade, and he wielded a more conventional blaster in his left hand. Both of them were wearing near-identical black suits of battle armor with white edges and shoulderguards. Upon Cress exiting his office to meet with them, the bigger man smiled and pointed his rifle at him.

"You have 10 seconds to show me the safe, or else you're a dead-"

"Brussel!" shouted the smaller man indignantly. "For the last time, we are not killing anyone."

"Oh c'mon, Zucchi!" Brussel replied. "You weren't supposed to say that aloud!"

"I tried to tell you earlier, but you just wouldn't listen."

"But why give the witnesses more leeway?"

"No. Killing. Not even threats. _Boss_ said so."

Cress noticed the burly Brussel tremble slightly at the mention of his so-called "boss". He put away his gun in a backpack he hadn't noticed earlier and huffed in frustration.

"Gah, fine! Nobody here's gonna die. If you don't give us the money, then I guess we'll have to go for the next best thing: Permanent crippling!" said Brussel, smashing his fists together with his last remark. Cress almost exhaled out of amusement as he saw Zucchi roll his eyes at the new threat, as well as the incompetent choices they had made by not masking their names or faces. The watered-down, but still grave danger presented to him stopped him from doing so.

"Very well. I am clearly outmatched." Cress said in his elderly, raspy voice while holding up his arms. "I will show you the way."

Brussel and Zucchi gave crooked smiles as they walked behind him, nudging him over to the door to his office. When they entered, Cress flapped open a secret hatch in the wall, revealing an opening where a big metal cube with a red button on its front was located.

"Just press the button. The money is in there."

Without giving a shred of doubt as to what the device did, Zucchi pressed it. Instead of opening to reveal a stash of gold and money, however, a clang was heard as the office's one window was totally shut by a metal curtain. Now concerned, the two criminals sprinted outside the room to find the natural light that once seeped into the main lobby via the windows had almost totally vanished as the surroundings revealed by its windows were also covered by a metallic sheet. In frustration, Brussel pulled his rifle back out and fired a series of shots at the covers. Even after nearly depleting his clip, however, there wasn't so much as a dent in the sheet. Zucchi then fired a Ki blast at one of the walls, whizzing just past some of the citizens trapped inside the bank. When the smoke cleared, the newly formed hole in the wall revealed that there was more of the metal cover, likely enshrouding the entire building.

"Don't bother." Cress uttered in a confident tone from behind them, his arms crossed behind his back. "It's Kachin. I actually only installed it about a month ago. Either way, you're trapped in here until the cops come."

Brussel and Zucchi did not move, keeping their backs turned towards him as they slowly lifted their guns.

"Go ahead, kill me if you'd like." Cress taunted. "At least I'll die knowing I ended your career before it even began."

Finally, the two Saiyan bandits did react. They didn't shoot him from rage, nor did they make another futile attempt to get out. Instead they stood in place and started… ...laughing? It began as a low giggle, but within moments they began chuckling heartily.

"You really have gone senile, haven't you?" Zucchi said menacingly as he and Brussel turned towards him. "Don't get us wrong, we've certainly made plenty of mistakes thus far, but did you really think we wouldn't plan for a trick as obvious as _this_?"

Cress lifted his eyebrow in confusion. That's when he noticed two extremely thin glowing yellow disks slip right under the miniscule opening at the bottom of the sealed-off door, dragging across the floor as they eventually stopped in the room between him and the robbers. While he backed away, Brussel and Zucchi reached into their bags only to pull out sunglasses, which they fastened on before smirking at the old banker. Then everything went white.

* * *

Cress lifted himself off the bank's floor in a daze. His vision was still spotty and his ears were ringing, but he could make out three differences. For one, many of the hostages trapped in with him were still writhing on the floor in visible discomfort. Second of all, Brussel and Zucchi were gone. And thirdly, the door, including the barrier, had been ripped off its hinges. This last observation chilled Cress deeply; who or what could have managed a feat like that?

As his hearing cleared, he could begin to make out a conversation occurring just outside the bank. With extreme caution, he snuck over to the rim of the destroyed door and took a peek outside. Parked directly front of of the establishment was a gray-armored, mildly scratched-up speeder bike hovering just above the ground. Two figures, one much taller than the other, were standing at the bike's side, their backs again turned towards Cress. They seemed to be looking down at something.

"Thanks for helping us out there." said Zucchi.

"Don't mention it, knucklehead." replied a voice that Cress had never heard before. It was a high-pitched, feminine voice, somewhat muffled as if something was in its mouth. "Now, lemme get this stuff on the bike and let's get outta-"

"Hey, Zucchi, who's that guy over there?"

Cress froze in place as the two goons looked back at him. As they turned to face him, he could finally see who they were talking to. The third criminal was dwarfed in size by her companions, wearing a pink top, baggy gray pants and with tall, pointed black hair. She was holding a bag of money in her mouth as if she were some sort of animal. It was clear this person could not be older than 15. It didn't even immediately dawn upon him that this was possibly the same person who made the flash grenades and helped rip off the door, for now he was being filled with a whole new kind of rage.

"How… How could you?" he shouted in a tone just loud enough to startle the three. "How could you use a child for your dangerous, illegal schemes?! Do you have not a shred of shame? Does your BOSS have any guilt that he or she has roped in a minor into their violent, dysfunctional gang?!"

The two parties stared each other down. Then, Zucchi and Brussel made that same taunting laugh while they and the girl piled on to the bike, with the latter spitting out her prize into the backseat.

"I got some bad news for you, pal." the teenage girl said. "I'M the boss. I rounded up these guys to work for me, and they're expected to listen to my every order. Right, boys?"

Zucchi and Brussel nodded while Cress' eyes widened at the revelation.

"Don't ever call me a child again, by the way. My name's Caulifla, and the next time you see my face, it'll be on a 'Most Wanted' list. See ya!"

With one final unified laugh, the three bandits stormed off on their vehicle, leaving Cress to languish in shock as dust was kicked up on him. A few minutes later, he heard police sirens coming over from the other end of the street at the foot of the hill.

* * *

Night had dawned on the Sadal badlands, which themselves were a desolate place. The appropriately dry area was mainly occupied by pink-tinted rock formations, clustered tightly enough to create a complex network of narrow pathways through the towering stones. While there weren't any notable patches of wildlife or bodies of water in the badlands, there were a surplus of caves that lead inside the rock formations, typically leading to ends just as dead as the rest of the region. However, if one were to travel up to one particularly high cave entrance lead up to by an all-too-convenient set of stone steps, they would hear a peculiar sound; the sound of feet rapidly tapping against the floor.

The makeshift den for Caulifla's gang was a messy place. Being composed of one wide room, many of their stolen treasures and knick-knacks were messily stashed and crammed at the sides of the den's walls. Above the bunkbeds at the northern-most end of the lair was a series of chalk etchings denoting the amount of the days the gang had been active; in two days, the ragtag group would hit 2 months of age. In the very center of the room was a single wooden table where their leader was currently sat, tapping her leg on the floor, her subordinates not currently with her. In due time, however, they returned carrying something in a bag.

"What took you so long?" Caulifla asked, her young age's lack of patience being particularly transparent.

"Sorry about that, madam." Zucchi replied. "A gust of wind came about while we were cooking it and we had to light up the fire again."

Caulifla was marginally more sympathetic. She wouldn't stand for having an open fire around in her lair even for cooking, and she appreciated her servants' effort. She sat back as Brussel opened the bag and dumped out a still-smoking steak on her table. She didn't even bother waiting for them to pull out the customary pair of slightly-cracked silverware from one of the many bags scattered around, for she was so famished that she elected to rip apart and gobble down the meal with her bare hands. Brussel and Zucchi bowed to their captain before heading off to get something for themselves. As they started foraging the food reserves stashed in one of the stolen coolers lying around, however, Caulifla called them over.

"What's the problem, boss?" Brussel said in a slightly over-enthusiastic tone.

"This steak smells funny." she replied while squinting and poking at it. "It smells like smoke, though it doesn't look like you burnt it…"

"I don't think it's the steak, madam." she heard Zucchi say. When she looked up, she saw the red-and-black-haired goon was pointing out the cave entrance. She groaned when she realized what he likely meant. Sure enough, when she dipped her head outside, she saw multiple trails of smoke rising into the sky a few rock formation chains away as if they were coming out of chimneys.

"Ok, that's it." she said with frustration. "Who the heck are those guys? They've been keeping this crap up for nearly a week now."

"No idea," Brussels replied. "but regardless of who those bozos are or what they're up to, we can't let them interrupt our queen's meal, now can we?"

Caulifla's rage gave way to a childish giggle. "That's the spirit! Let's go pay those losers a visit and show them what happens when you intrude on the territory of the great Caulifla!"

"Are you sure about that, madam?"

Caulifla turned to glare at Zucchi, who had made the proposition.

"Why would I do that?"

"We've never actually bothered to take a look at their camp or meet with them at all. We have no idea what they're capable of."

Caulifla scoffed and began to discuss her plans with Brussel. Zucchi stood there awkwardly trying to figure out how to convince the indomitable crook to back off on the mission. Suddenly, a lightbulb went on his head. He quickly ran back into their den and came out with a poorly-maintained, messy stack of newspapers.

"Mistress Caulifla," he began, "I think I might know who those guys are."

"Oh?"

"About a year ago, there was a bombing at one of Sadal City's major embassies." he said, holding up a paper with the front cover showing a building whose side was belching smoke. "The Defense Force investigated it and linked it to cult activity. They've been trying to track them down ever since, but every time they seemingly find a lead, the cult manages to get away and hide."

"So, you're implying that that group is actually at least associated with this cult." Caulifla replied skeptically. "And your evidence is…?"

"Well," Zucchi began again, "judging by the amount of smoke they're creating, it does seem to be a very large settlement. Besides, nobody else would wanna live in a place this isolated from civilization and lacking in natural resources unless they're either on the run or very weird people. Both descriptors would fit a cult like that quite handily. Either way, I think that gives us more reason to stay out of their business. They're clearly deranged, dangerous people. If they catch you trying to steal anything from them, who knows what they'll do!"

Caulifla pondered this statement. "That sounds…"

"That sounds AWESOME! I bet they have all kinds of ancient voodoo goodies and stolen tech tucked away somewhere which we can make a killing off of! Get ready boys, we're off at nightfall!"

Brussel saluted Caulifla before he and his master went off to get ready. Zucchi let his arms fall limp and groaned before doing the same.

* * *

When night dawned, the badlands were as silent as they ever were at that odd hour. There wasn't so much as the calls of any nocturnal creatures or the scampering of any other people. On any other day, Caulifla, Brussel and Zucchi would be fast asleep in their bunks, tucked away from the rest of the world inside their den. But on this night they were flying up to the very top of the last rock pillar between them and their target. When they reached the top, they got a good look at the cultist encampment they would be marauding for the night.

Their first sight was the tents. Throughout the wide, rounded stretch of the land tucked away between the rocks were bunches of scarlet red tents, scattered about with no discernible pattern or formation. While the tents themselves were rather small, there was one much larger one at the very north of the base, at least the size of a circus tent. It too was a bright red color with a golden banner wrapping around it near its top.

"So what's our plan of action, boss?" Brussel said with gumption. Unlike Zucchi, he did not seem very worried at all by what they were about to attempt.

"Those tents seem rather fragile." the younger girl replied. "Besides, now that I think about it, Zucchi may have had a point earlier. I don't think brute-forcing our way through is gonna work this time around."

"Brussel, Do you think you can manage stealth?"

At this question, Brussel immediately nodded his head side to side, shaking his beard across his chest. "With a body like this? Not a chance, boss."

"Then you'll stay here and perform look-out duty. And what about you, Zucchi?"

"I suppose I could do it with my smaller stature. Besides, one extra hand can only do you good."

"In that case," Caulifla said, "we're ready. See ya later, Brussel!"

And with that, Caulifla dropped down to the encampment, with Zucchi following her.

* * *

Caulifla and Zucchi quietly made their way around the smaller tents. As they walked, they immediately noticed that pretty much all of the tents had their entrances shut for the night. This relaxed them a fair bit, and let them be just slightly less careful. Caulifla herself found the mission to be much less exciting than she thought it would be; for her, the greatest challenge was not giving in to boredom and blowing their cover by going berserk on the place. In due time, however, the two bandits made it out of the main group of tents and reached the entrance of the bigger one. Instead of a zippable door, its entrance was two drapes that one merely needed to walk through.

"Should we scan for traps before we enter, madam?" Zucchi whispered.

"Strategy would be beneficial, yes. But it's no fun!" And with that witty retort, Caulifla stormed into the base. Zucchi shrugged and followed suit.

The place they walked into was about as bizarre as it could get. The circular room had a red carpet with messily scrawled-on patterns covering the inner half ot the floor. Unlit candles, pottery and small gems were scattered haphazardly across the floor in such close proximity that Caulifla and Zucchi had to thread extra carefully. In addition, there was a set of stairs that seemingly went up to a second floor, but it was blocked off by a trap door that appeared to be locked; even Caulifla didn't feel like taking that risk, albeit for different reasons.

"This junk is worthless!" she exclaimed at a normal voice level, which for their stealthing standards was basically a scream, while picking up and letting a diamond ring filter through her fingers onto the ground. She then turned to Zucchi with an unsatisfied expression.

'Thanks for hyping this place up for nothing."

"Don't be so sure, madam." Zucchi replied. "I know how these places operate, and I bet they have some secrets lying about."

"I appreciate the optimism, but I don't see how-"

As she said this, Caulifla had stepped back slightly. This had caused her foot to accidentally kick one of the vases behind, smashing and going through it until her foot hit a secret lever, causing the floor beneath her to open up and making her fall into the deep hole that had just appeared.

* * *

Caulifla flipped her body and faced straight down the hole as she freefell. As she got closer to the bottom, she could see a bed of spikes at the very bottom. Now reassured there was nothing to worry about, she turned on her back and letting herself fall. When she looked back up, she saw Zucchi looking down through the hole. With a confident smirk, she flipped around and touched down on the ground next to it right before she could fall on the spikes.

"You can come down here, it's just a spike trap!" she called up to Zucchi, who promptly floated down. When he arrived, he quickly took note of the hallway that led out of the trap into another room. The room itself was metallic and ancient, reeking of moss and fungus that trailed across its decrepit, stained steel walls. At the rims of the room were 6 steel doors with small, barred peepholes at the top of each.

"You think there's any treasure in there?" Zucchi asked, pointing at a few of the doors.

"Well, only one way to find out!" Caulifla replied jovially. "Stay where you are and keep guard, I'm going in!"

As her subordinate saluted, Caulifla went up the first, leftmost door. Upon seeing that it was locked, the Saiyan girl reached into her pants pockets and pulled out a small metal bobby pin. From there, it only took a brief bit of tinkering and fiddling around with the device before the door squeaked and creaked open.

Caulifla's eyes magnified at the sight in front of her. Throughout the entire storage room were piles upon piles of brilliant golden coins and bizarre artifacts, among them bejeweled busts of strange creatures and even a sarcophagus. Ancient wealth wasn't all there was, for there was also bits and pieces of scavenged technology littered about, including scouters, computer parts and tablets. Never had the girl seen so many riches concentrated into one place, certainly none that had mesmerized her quite like this. The only thing that knocked her out of her stupor was the realization that there were still 5 more rooms to go.

"Zucchi," she said turning to the relatively meek Saiyan, "get out all the bags. We're gonna need to double-dip anyway, but for now let's get all we can!"

* * *

Brussel was seated awkwardly on top of the rocky ridge. With his head slumped over his arm, he looked on at the dull, lifeless camp, waiting for Caulifla and Zucchi to return, assumably with some good loot. He was so bored at that point in time that he was just about ready to fall asleep.

That was when candlelights began to flicker on inside the tents in a chilling, startling unison. Now paying attention once more, Brussel watched on as a bunch of red-robed figures began to walk out of each of the tents. The only other features that could be distinguished beneath their garments was their height, for even their faces were blocked by the shadow their hoods cast over them.

Brussel stood up. _Did they catch them? _He thought to himself. _If so, this might get a bit bloody…_

* * *

Caulifla was now laughing cheerfully, almost hysterically. She utterly ignored the tired warnings of Zucchi who was now burdened with bags of treasure, opting to generate more and more noise as she pranced around to the fourth of the 5 doors, and one of two that had not been opened and at least partially emptied. As she picked open this door much more brutally and noisily than she had the others, idealized thoughts of intergalactic cruises and bustling, luxurious mansions flowed through her mind while she stared at the seemingly-endless sea of gold, jewels and beautiful knick-knacks and ancient weapons interspersed in the storage area. And when she dumped as much as she could into one of two remaining brown bags, she continued to fantasize about serving as the right-hand woman - possibly the leader - of the most legendary criminals and feared mafias of Universe 6. Eventually the bag was filled, and so there remained one last unopened steel door in the musky, dark room. By this point, Caulifla had become so high, so thrilled by her newfound riches that she couldn't care less about taking even the most basic precautions to avoid detection. With a great pull, she used her prodigal strength to rip the door clean off its hinges, and as the partially-rusted bolts that used to hold it in place popped out, clanging and bouncing across the floor, she spread out her arms, ready to dive headfirst into the spoils of the final room.

But there was no treasure. Not one golden coin glistened, nor was there a single rare statuette staring back at her within the steel-laden room. At the same time, however, the room was not totally empty, for in the leftmost corner Caulifla noticed that the shadow cast over it did not look quite right. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust and realize it was the figure of a person curled up in the corner. The Saiyan was less disturbed and more disappointed at first; the high from earlier was gone, and it hadn't been the first time she had had to deal with dead bodies. Then she noticed the being's head slowly move; when it stopped, a trembling, fearful black eye was looking back at her, the vibrant white around the pupil and a long ponytail at the back of its head being the only other discernible features in the dark room. While the variety of unsettling implications nestled themselves into the young girl's mind, Zucchi tiptoed over to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

When she turned around, she realized that her comrade was not alone. At the end of the room from whence they had entered was a tall, red-cloaked figure, a mask covering the top half of her face, leaving only slitted blue eyes, bright red lips and small strands of hair that ran from behind her back exposed. While Caulifla's gusto was somewhat dulled by her bizarre discovery in the fifth room, she continued up to the mysterious woman with the closest she could muster to her usual confidence.

"What do you want, loser? I've already taken what I want, now get out of the way."

The figure did not answer.

"What's wrong? Don't got any sarcastic quips to match those of the great Caulifla?"

The figure did not answer.

"C'mon, it's no fun if you don't talk to me! I'm stealing your stuff, just show some emotion, c'mon!"

The figure did not answer.

"Alright, I'm getting tired of your brooding practice. Now, let's see if I can smash that mask with my fist!"

Caulifla proceeded to charge head first at the mysterious woman. Standing from the sidelines, Zucchi cringed as the figure flicked up a leg, kicking Caulifla in the stomach mid-flight. The younger girl touched down back on the ground and looked back up at her assailant while she gagged from the blow. Before she could counter, the other woman wrapped a gloved hand around her throat and lifted her up. Caulifla expected some sort of intimidating line at this point, but the woman did not speak. Instead, she flapped open part of the inside of her hood, revealing white writing within its folds.

_I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME OF DAY TO PLAY THESE GAMES._

Caulifla felt her throat being crushed by the mighty hand of the cultist. She tried to call for help, but all that came out was a weak, high-pitched aberration of a call.

Suddenly, she felt the grip released from around her throat, watching as the woman fell down from the impact of a bag that had been tossed at her head, which spilled out coins as it too fell. Before Caulifla could ponder as to where the bag came from, Zucchi grabbed her and flew out from out of the spike trap they had come in through.

"Wait a minute!" Caulifla exclaimed after panting a bit in Zucchi's grasp. "Where's the money?"

"Madam, I'm sorry," Zucchi replied, "but at this point I value our lives over the money!"

* * *

Both of them eventually reached the top. Caulifla released herself from Zucchi's grasp and sprinted out of the tent with him. They were soon halted by a swarm of red-robed cultists that had assembled outside the tent. The weapons they wielded were mixed; some opted to use their fists, others had daggers and makeshift swords and maces, and yet others had simple blasters and other firearms. Just then, they heard a loud crash as two of the goons in the back were launched up in the air by an unseen force.

"Outta my way!" Brussel bellowed as he cleaved through a line of off-guard cultists, meeting back up with Zucchi and Caulifla. Within seconds, the gap he had left in the crowd of people was sealed.

"Boss!" he said to Caulifla. "Thank goodness you're ok." He then turned back to the cultists and prepared a fairly basic battle stance, with the other two doing the same. To their surprise, however, the cultists did not prepare themselves for a fight. Instead, they did the exact opposite, spreading out and making a pathway for the trio to leave the camp. Almost instinctively Caulifla turned around, backing up upon seeing the masked woman from earlier just a few feet behind her. Zucchi and Brussel followed suit. The woman then flapped open the right side of her robe, underneath which even bigger text was scrawled on.

WILL YOU LEAVE AND NEVER RETURN?

YES NO

Brussel was utterly dumbfounded by the display, while Zucchi was too unsettled to respond. To the surprise of nobody, it was Caulifla who gathered the courage to reply.

"And what happens if we don't?"

The woman closed the robe and opened up the left side. This time, instead of text, there was a painting. The overly angular, unshaded drawing depicted a titanic, muscular figure with red clothes and long green hair. Behind the humanoid was a sea of fire in which small black marks resembling people could be seen writhing in the flames. Under normal circumstances Caulifla would've laughed at the display of insanity, but considering the power she had shown earlier she restrained such laughter for fear of the repercussions.

"Alright," she said with a bit of relief, "we'll leave you guys alone. C'mon boys, let's get outta here."

Using the path that had been fashioned for them, Caulifla, Brussel and Zucchi began to leave the camp. But something felt off to their normally fearless leader. Being careful not to be noticed, she craned her head and eyes just far enough to see behind her. Where the masked woman had previously had the left side of her robe stuck up, there was now a much smaller person standing there. The little girl looked even younger than Caulifla did, she too wearing a red robe, although hers didn't have the hood up. When Caulifla took note of the girl's ponytail and black eyes, however, that was when it dawned upon her it was likely the same figure she had seen in the fifth room of the bigger tent's basement. What disconcerted her most was the girl's face: With every step she walked away, the neutral face seemed to morph into a look of sorrow; by the time the gang was getting ready to fly away, it looked like she was on the edge of tears. Before she could see what would happen, however, the masked woman shuffled in front of her and slightly extended both of her arms, totally blocking the helpless girl from sight. Finally, Caulifla and her subordinates lifted themselves off the ground and flew over the mountain, and for the first time ever, their leader opted to stick to the back of the party.

* * *

The atmosphere in the gang's den was quieter than usual. Tired from their previous excursion, Zucchi sat in the corner, wolfing down on some leftover meat. He was so invested in his meal that he hardly paid notice to the developing conversation between Brussel and Caulifla.

"Look boss," he began while looking down at the drained, depressed-looking captain, "I know the raid wasn't successful, but you can't win 'em all, right? Just be glad we made it out with our scalps!" he said cheekily.

"It's not that." Caulifla replied. "At least, not entirely. That girl..."

"And what about her?" Brussel asked.

"When I left, she looked like she died on the inside right at that moment. To be locked up in a windowless storage room like that... ...who knows what they've been doing to her."

"Boss, listen. You may be stronger than either of us, but we've known the crime world for longer. When you see a young person in a situation like that, I know you wanna play hero; believe us, it doesn't get any easier to cope with stuff like that. But oftentimes you just can't do that. I was only able to knock around those cultists by catching them by surprise; even then they didn't seem too phased. And don't get me started on their leader; I didn't even see the fight you had with her, but just the description you gave chilled me. Someone who can do that to you is not to be trifled with."

Caulifla entered a pensive state.

"Well, that settles it." she said after a minute while raising her head up. Brussel smiled and reached over to pat her on the shoulder.

"I'm going back over there and rescuing that girl."

Brussel's smile faded and he jolted his hand back slightly. At this point, Zucchi's interest - and fear - was piqued.

"Madam Caulifla," he said, "You can't be serious. We just got let off the hook by a murderous cult leader and you want to go back and provoke her on the same night you attempted a robbery?"

"It's not an ideal situation for sure," Caulifla replied, "but I don't think I'll ever be able to get over the guilt and shame if I abandon that girl to suffer."

"They will overpower you, madam. Please, if you must go, at least take a week or so to train."

"No can do. If they're unhinged enough to do something like that to someone so young, there's a 99% chance they'll try to punish her somehow for just seeing me. One week of waiting is one week for them to kill her or break her spirit further in some insane ritual."

Zucchi and Brussel looked at each other, not knowing what to say as Caulifla slowly stepped her way to the moonlit entrance of the den. When she looked back at them, the ominousness of her next statement contrasted with the typical, overly confident smirk she now donned.

"If I don't come back in about 4 hours, your next move is totally up to you. Look for me or go your separate ways, I don't really care."

And then she turned back around, leapt down from the cave entrance and landed on the ground before running towards the remaining clumps of smoke in the sky that denoted the location of the unlit camp.


End file.
